Tag: Corning

Siri & iBooks E-Books = Audio Books & Digital Buyers Rights Are Not Just About E-Books

Linda Reimer

Siri & iBooks E-Books = Audio Books: Public libraries (and their staffs!) are of course big proponents of the practice of life-long learning. After all public libraries are places you can go, either in the real world or online, to learn more about a subject whether that subject is how to write a better resume, how to cook a dish with exotic spices, how to fix a car or leaky faucet or to discover what were the causes of World War I.

And since I’m a public librarian working in a public library I am always pleased both to assist patrons in learning something new and to learn something new myself. With that in mind, I was thrilled last evening after owning three different iPad models since 2010 to discover something I didn’t know about the iPad! And what I discovered it that if you own a Siri equipped iPad (3rd of 4th generation models) and buy e-books through the iBooks app (that is Apple’s e-book store app); you can go into settings and turn on the Speak Selection option which will in turn allow you to highlight any text in the e-books in your iBooks library and have the Siri personal assistant voice read the highlighted text to you! So in essence you can turn all printed e-books purchased from Apple’s iBook store into audio books. And I thought that was cool! You can even slow down the Siri voice to suit your taste.

To do this, that is to turn this function on which incidentally you can do not just with the iPad but with Siri equipped iPhones and iPods too, you:

  1. Open the Settings app
  2. Select the General option
  3. Scroll down to the bottom of the General settings option and tap the word Accessibility to open the Accessibility options
  4. Under the Vision section that displays turn on the Speak Selection option
  5. Then open the iBooks app, open a book, select the text you wish to have read aloud and you’ll now see an option that says “Speak” (it is the option on the far right hand side of the highlighted text menu”; tap Speak and presto – the Siri voice will read the highlighted text!

Now granted Siri will only read a page at a time – so you might want to make the text really tiny before you select it and instruct Siri to read it – but still it is a cool that we have this option with our newer Apple devices.

And not surprisingly I found out about the Siri reading option by reading an article! The article, which also features an accompanying step-by-step instructional video, is titled Siri Trick Turns iBooks into Audio Books, here’s the link:

http://www.tuaw.com/2013/03/18/siri-trick-turns-ibooks-into-audiobooks/

Digital Buyers Rights Are Not Just About E-Books: Digital buyers rights might also be described as consumer’s “Digital Property Rights;” and I did know, as does anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis, that at the present time consumers don’t have the ability to actually buy and own e-books or digital music, audios or videos. We can purchase a license to access the content but we don’t own it and thus we can’t give it away, lend it to a friend or bequeath it to our heirs. And I did know that – however, I was astonished to read an article yesterday that illustrates how colossal an issue the lack of ownership of digital content is because in fact the term “digital ownership” doesn’t just apply to e-books, e-videos and e-audios it also applies to the propriety computer and software systems built into new high-tech cars and other vehicles.

And with that in mind, did you know that you can buy certain new high tech cars and other vehicles that require computer software and hardware to run properly but that even if you “buy” one of those cars or other vehicles you don’t own the proprietary software and/or hardware that runs that vehicle? So if your high tech car or other vehicle breaks down and needs to be fixed you don’t have the authority to fix it! Instead you have to pay the manufacturer more money for one of their technicians to come and fix it!

I came across an article in Wired on this subject yesterday titled Forget the Cellphone Fight – We Should Be Allowed to Unlock Everything We Own, and the author Kyle Weins gives two excellent examples of how manufacturers are in essence using outdated copyright laws to infringing on the property rights of consumers – essentially blocking us from actually owning things we buy and making more money in the process– in the case of his examples – the items are cars and farm vehicles.

In the first example, Weins discusses a small farmer in California named Kerry Adams who purchased two high tech transplanter machines at round $100,000 each for his farm. These high-tech computerized machines broke down shortly after he purchased them and he didn’t have the right to fix them because the software that runs them is proprietary– so the manufacturer required that he pay one of their approved technicians to fly out to his farm to fix the machines. And naturally the machines have subsequently broken down again and are now sitting idle on his farm because he cannot afford to keep paying the manufacturer’s technicians to keep traveling out to his farm to fix the equipment that he isn’t allowed to fix himself and he isn’t allowed to take the machines to a local business to be serviced.

And consider the second example, new high tech cars that break down. Now if my 2004 Ford broke down I’d take it to Kapral’s Auto & Tire over on Pulteney Street and have them fix it – which they could do because it isn’t a high tech car with a built in computer system.

However, with todays’ new high-tech cars – ones that have proprietary software built into them and for which the diagnostic tools are copyrighted by the manufacturers  – consumers are finding that independent auto repair shops either cannot fix those cars because the manufacturers won’t allow the independent auto repair shops to buy the copyrighted car manuals or the shops cannot fix them without charging their customers more money because they have to pay for the car manuals for these complex high tech cars which are too complex for auto mechanics to fix without accessing the manufacturer copyrighted car manuals.   

Unbelievable!

You buy a new high tech car or a pricey farm machine and you don’t really own it!

We better all hope that our cars and other high end vehicles we purchase don’t break down because otherwise we’ll have to pay the manufacturer more money to send one of their approved technicians out to fix our vehicles or we’ll have to pay more at our local auto repair shops – that is always assuming that the manufacturer will graciously allow our local independent auto repair shops to purchase the manuals for the model cars we “own” so they can fix them. I highly suspect the manufactures would rather force consumers who purchase new high tech cars into by-passing using their local repair shops. I am quite certain they’d rather we all drive our vehicles, or have them towed, to manufacturer approved regional service centers where approved technicians and mechanics will no doubt charge us even more money to fix our vehicles than we would have paid at our local repair shops – that is if we had been allowed to take our high tech cars that needed repair to those shops; but apparently that is yet another consumer property right that modern manufacturers would rather consumers not have – the choice of where to take your car to have it repaired.  

And I certainly hope that our government catches up with the rapidly-advancing-technology-copyright versus Consumer Property Rights issue soon. And further that Consumer Property Rights legislation or Supreme Court rulings, as the case may be,  should cover all physical and digital materials and all hybrid materials like cellphones and high end, high tech cars – and all the consumer rights we’ve always had previously in our democratic society – to actually own all the items we buy – and own them in their entirety – so if our high end car breaks down we should be able to access the tools we need to fix it ourselves or have our favorite local auto mechanic fix it for us without paying the car manufacturer more money or being told where to take the car for approved repairs. And of course, we should also be able to own our e-books too and read them on any device we wish, loan or give them to anyone we wish or even donated them to our public libraries for their next cyber book sale if we wish.

And in the meantime, while the manufacturers of high tech vehicles and appliances and producers of digital content (e-books etc.) are blocking the traditional consumer right to buy and own items and the government is sloooowly working to catch up copyright law wise – I’ll be keeping my 2004 Ford for as long as I can!

And here’s the link to the Wired article:

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/you-dont-own-your-cellphones-or-your-cars

Have a great day!

Linda R.

 

References

Sande, Steven. (2013, March 18). Siri trick turns iBooks into audiobooks. TUAW. Online.  

Wiens, Kyle. (2013, March 18). Forget the Cellphone Fight – We Should Be Allowed to Unlock Everything We Own. Wired. Online. 

Weekend Digital Catalog Suggested Reading/Viewing/Listening

Linda Reimer

Here is the list of suggested reading, viewing and listening titles for this weekend!

Suggested E-Book:

Acceleration by Graham McNamee: It’s a hot, hot summer, and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority’s Lost and Found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging lost things and sifting through accumulated junk. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan’s just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book. It’s a diary filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. And Duncan can’t make himself stop reading.

What would you do with a book like that? How far would you go to catch a madman?

And what if time was running out. . . .

Suggested Album:

Book of Dreams by The Steve Miller Band

Digital Audio Download Includes:

1. Threshold (Steve Miller)

2. Jet Airliner (Steve Miller)

3. Winter Time (Steve Miller)

4. Swingtown (Steve Miller)

5. True Fine Love (Steve Miller)

6. Wish Upon A Star (Steve Miller)

7. Jungle Love (Steve Miller)

8. Electro Lux Imbroglio (Instrumental) (Steve Miller)

9. Sacrifice (Steve Miller)

10. The Stake (Steve Miller)

11. My Own Space (Steve Miller)

12. Babes In The Wood (Instrumental) (Steve Miller)

Suggested Audio Book: A classic work of horror just in time for the weekend!

Carrie by Stephen King: Overview: Stephen King’s legendary debut, about a teenage outcast and the revenge she enacts on her classmates.

Carrie White may have been unfashionable and unpopular, but she had a gift. Carrie could make things move by concentrating on them. A candle would fall. A door would lock. This was her power and her sin. Then, an act of kindness, as spontaneous as the vicious taunts of her classmates, offered Carrie a chance to be a normal and go to her senior prom. But another act—of ferocious cruelty—turned her gift into a weapon of horror and destruction that her classmates would never forget.

Suggested Video:

Africa’s Incredible Hulks, Part 1 of 2: Unforgettable Elephants Description: Unforgettable Elephants – Award-winning wildlife cameraman Martyn Colbeck has filmed African elephants for more than fifteen years, learning to anticipate their every move as he follows them across plains and deserts and into jungles. In this retrospective of his work, he shares his spectacular footage along with his unique insights about these unforgettable elephants, including their exceptional ability to communicate and cooperate, and their complex emotions and strong loyalty to one another. After years of sharing their company, he earned their trust, and they stole his heart.

Note: This is part one of a series of two parts. Part 2 is also available via the STLS Digital Catalog

The STLS Digital Catalog may be found on the library’s homepage of SSCLIBRARY.ORG

Or via the following link:

http://stls.lib.overdrive.com/FE5904CF-8A91-4688-A592-7A046C7988D3/10/536/en/Default.htm

And if you have an app device look for the OverDrive Media Console app in your app store – it is the app that will allow you to check out free library e-books and audio books.

Digital Catalog music and video titles must currently be downloaded to a Windows computer to enjoy.

Have a great weekend!

Linda R.

Link To Cool Article On Used E-Books

Linda Reimer

Here’s a link to a cool article titled Reselling E-Books and the One Penny Problem that focuses on the possibility of Amazon and Apple selling used e-books – from the New York Times tech guru David Pogue

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/reselling-e-books-and-the-one-penny-problem/

And here’s a link to the Owners’ Rights Initiative website – their logo is “You bought it. You own it. You have a right to re-sell it.” And the American Library Association is, not surprisingly, one of the members of the group. And the organization of course focuses on the fact although you can own printed books; albums on vinyl and CD and videos on DVD and you can’t own the very same titles in the digital format…

 http://ownersrightsinitiative.org/

Have a great evening!

Linda R.

 

 

Television Revolution Overview & Steps To Take To Be Healthier If You Sit In Front Of A Computer All Day

Linda Reimer

Television Revolution Overview: I came across a cool article yesterday that offers an easily accessible overview of the Television Revolution currently underway. The article is both easy to read and very informative offering information regarding streaming video subscription services, streaming video on demand and much more. If you’re interested in the ways television viewing is changing – and how, in the near future, it might change the way you view television shows too– you may want to check out the article. The article is aptly titled Crash Course Understanding The TV Revolution – here’s the link:

http://www.studiosystemnews.com/crash-course-understanding-the-tv-revolution/

Steps To Take To Be Healthier If You Sit In Front Of A Computer All Day: I’ve come across a number of news articles recently that discuss the sedentary life-style that for most people comes with our modern high tech way of life. The basics gist of all the articles is that we tend to do less physical activity today than people did in times past and that although everyone should exercise for at least 30 minutes a day that all by itself isn’t enough to promote optimum health. It seems that just being sedentary during the work day– as those of us who do a great deal of computer work during the work day tend to be – is also bad for your health. And if you do work that has you sit for hours in front of a computer screen you should get up and move around at regular intervals – like those micro stretch breaks Wegmans is always prompting staff and shoppers to do! So you don’t have to do a work-out in the middle of the day; instead you can do little things like walk up stairs instead of taking elevators, park farther away from the grocery store entrance than you need to or even just buy a pedometer or electronic device (like the Jawbone Up) that tracks how many steps you take each day – and shoot for taking 10,000 steps a day instead of the average 5,000 steps a day most of us take.

And I think the writers of the articles are right to place an emphasis on increasing what the Wall Street Journal article author Sumathi Reddy describes as our “non-scheduled physical activities;” because, really, how many of go out and chop wood on a regular basis, walk to work or spend our days on our feet running around? Granted some people still do some type of physically demanding work or just work that requires one to be on one’s feet all day. However, many, many people also spend their days sitting in front of a computer doing work and thus they aren’t up and on their feet as much as is best to promote optimal health. So tech fans that we are – we should pay attention to how much non-scheduled physical activity we do each day and try and do more of it – or just buy a Jawbone Up for $129 as it will send information to your iPhone or iPod Touch regarding how many steps you take each day, how many calories you burn and if you wear it 24 hours a day – it will even let you know how well you are sleeping! And I digress. The Jawbone Up is a cool health gadget and you can check out the product review on Amazon if you’d like although a pedometer, which is can be purchased for about $20, would work too. Having said that here are links to two articles that discuss the importance of increasing our non-scheduled physical activity during the day:

Article 1 is from the Lifehacker site and is titled Why Walking Throughout the Day Is Just as Important as Vigorous Exercise – here’s the link

http://lifehacker.com/5990300/why-walking-throughout-the-day-is-just-as-important-as-exercise

And article 2 is from the Wall Street Journal and is titled Hard Math: Adding Up Just How Little We Actually Move – here’s the link

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324096404578354590581579014.html

 Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Klosowski, Thorin. (2013, March 13). Why Walking Throughout the Day Is Just as Important as Exercise. Lifehacker. Online.

Manis, Aimee. (2013, March 11). Crash Course: Understanding the TV Revolution. Studio System News. Online.

Reddy, Sumathi. (2013, March 11). Hard Math: Adding Up Just How Little We Actually Move. Wall Street Journal. Online. 

Prescription Google Glass Glasses, Controlling Your Computer With Hand Motion & A You Bet Your Life Story

Linda Reimer

Prescription Google Glass Glasses: If you’re like me and are both a tech fan and someone who wears glasses and you have heard about the Google Glass glasses; they are the glasses that connect to the Internet and display information, emails and webpages in front of your eyes via voice control, you may have wondered if you’d be able to use them if in conjunction with prescription lenses. And as it turns out you will be able to wear prescription Google Glass glasses. The tech site Ars Technica offers a brief article on the subject of Google Glass prescription glasses, titled Google shows off a prescription version of Google Glass. And although I’m pleased to hear this new and cool gadget will be available for people who wear prescription glasses I have to say – I just hope they work for those of us who have bifocals!

Here is the link to the article:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/google-shows-off-a-prescription-version-of-google-glasses/

Controlling Your Computer With a Wave of Your Hand: May 13, 2013 is a day that may usher a new computing era in – it is the day that the Leap Motion Controller, which will list for $79, will go on sale. And the Leap Motion Controller will literally allow you to control your computer not with a mouse but with by the motion of your fingers or your hand. Want to scroll up a webpage? You’ll be able to do so just by moving your finger in a vertical line in front of you! And if you’re playing Angry Birds you’ll be able to pull back that sling shot with the swipe of your finger and let that bird fly!  How cool is that!

Here’s a link to a Business Insider article on the new Leap Motion Controller titled Watch How This Gadget Lets You Control Your Computer With A Wave Of Your Hand:
http://www.businessinsider.com/leap-motion-video-demo-2013-3

And here’s a link to the Leap Motion product page if you’d like to learn more about the product from the horse’s mouth as it were:

https://www.leapmotion.com/product

And here’s a final Leap Motion Controller related link to a CNET article which has a title that is almost as cool as the controller itself! It is called Leap Motion Gives You Jedi Powers!

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57573673-1/leap-motion-creator-it-gives-you-jedi-powers/

A You Bet Your Life Story: This is one of those side-ways topics that really doesn’t have much to do with technology unless of course you count the fact that the television series You Bet Your Life which starred Groucho Marx was saved by his grandson Andy. Andy Marx also wrote the article which relays the story of how in the early seventies as a recent college graduate he saved all the film reels of the You Bet Your Life series by simply picking up the telephone! One day Andy was having lunch at his grandfather’s house with esteemed guest including Jack Nicholson, Marcel Marceau and Elliot Gould and the phone rang and Groucho asked Andy to answer it. When Andy picked up the phone he found that an NBC employee was on the phone inquiring whether or not Groucho wanted the reel to reel copies of You Bet Your Life – it seems NBC was clearing out their warehouse and wanted to get rid of the reels – Groucho was reluctant to take them but Andy convinced him and two weeks later five truck loads full of reels of the show arrives at Groucho’s house! Subsequently, Andy was hired to watch all the episodes and write down a description of each episode so that the shows could be aired as reruns a task that took him two months to accomplish. However, his hard work and effort paid off – because he was chiefly responsible for saving the thousands of reels of the show which would otherwise have vanished in the mists of television history. And now we can watch You Bet Your Life episodes on Netflix 33 years after Groucho’s death – Thanks Andy!

Here’s a link to the article titled The Day My Grandfather Grouch & I Saved ‘You Bet Your Life’

http://boingboing.net/2013/03/12/the-day-my-grandfather-groucho.html

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Brodkin, Jon. (2013, March 13). Google shows off a prescription version of Google Glass. Ars Technica. Online.

Mack, Eric. (2013, March 12). Leap Motion creator: It gives you Jedi powers. CNET. Online.

Marx, Andy. (2013, March 13). The Day My Grandfather Groucho & I Saved ‘You Bet Your Life.’ Boing Boing. Online.

Product. Leap Motion. Online. Accessed March 13, 2013.

Smith, Kevin. (2013, March 12). Watch How This Tiny Gadget Lets You Control Your Computer With A Wave Of Your Hand. Business Insider. Online.

Wi-Fi Range Extenders

Linda Reimer

And you might well be thinking “What on Earth is a Wi-Fi range extender?”

And the answer is that a Wi-Fi range extender is well, pretty much what it sounds like!

A Wi-Fi range extender is a reasonable small device about the size of a Wi-Fi router (about 7-8” square) and its purpose is to extend the range of your wireless network. And if you have Wi-Fi installed in your house and your house is a cozy one like mine then you may not need a Wi-Fi Range Extender because you can use your iPad or laptop in any room of your hour house and easily connect to the Internet, download music and stream movies and videos to your iPad or laptop or listen to Pandora whenever via you want seamlessly.

However, if you have a large house and your router is located in your study on the first floor in the front of the house you may find that when you are in a room of your house that is far away from your router; say in a bedroom on the third floor and in the back of the house– that you either receive a weak Wi-Fi signal or you have what is known as a Wi-Fi dead zone and you simply cannot connect to the Internet in that room or that part of the house. So if you have a situation like that then you either can’t connect to the Internet in that room or your connection is so slow that it takes long minutes for emails to come through and if you try and stream Netflix content to your laptop or television via your Roku player than your videos frequently stop and you have to wait for video buffering…if that is the case than you might want to consider buying a Wi-Fi range extender as that should fix the problem! After you install a Wi-Fi range extender in your house you should be able to easily connect to the Internet in the portion of your house where you were having trouble connecting to the Internet before; thus you’d be able to easily stream Netflix videos to that bedroom on the third floor of your house and get your send and receive emails in the usual quick fashion.

Not surprisingly my Wi-Fi range extender ponderings this morning were prompted by a news story on the subject – this one in the New York Times. David Pogue, the New York Times tech guru, offers a neat practical example of how a Wi-Fi range extender can improve your Internet connecting life in an article tilted Wi-Fi for Every Room in the Apartment. Here’s the link:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/07/wi-fi-for-every-room-in-the-apartment/

And if you want to know even more about the technical side of Wi-Fi range extenders here’s a link to a CNET article, titled Home Networking Explained Part 2 Optimizing Your Wi-Fi Network, on that subject:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57493114-1/home-networking-explained-part-2-optimizing-your-wi-fi-network/

And as you’ll note that last link is for part 2 of an article from CNET regarding Home Networking basics – so here, just FYI, is the link to the first article titled Home networking explained: Here’s the URL for you CNET:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57485724-1/home-networking-explained-heres-the-url-for-you/

Have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Ngo, Dong. (2013, February 13). Home networking explained: Here’s the URL for you CNET editor Dong Ngo gives all his answers to questions about the basics of home networking. CNET. Revised Edition. Online.

Ngo, Dong. (2012, August 17). CNET News Crave Home networking explained, Part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi …Home networking explained, Part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network. CNET. Online.

Pogue, David. (2013, March 7). Wi-Fi for Every Room in the House. New York Times. Online.

Plant-Man Surprises Pedestrians!

Linda Reimer

This particular tech blog posting will be a short one and is rather a side-ways one topic wise as it has nothing to do with technology – except for the fact that I found a link to this clip on the tech site MASHABLE!

The article and the clip are titled Man Dressed as Plant Pranks Passersby – and I thought it would add a touch of humor to our Monday afternoon!

The clip shows prankster Ryan Lewis sitting in the middle of busy pedestrian square decked out as a large plant sitting in a pot. And Ryan’s plant-man periodically reaches out to grasp at very surprised passersby! The clip rather reminds me of the old Candid Camera clips.

Here’s the link:

http://mashable.com/2013/03/11/plant-prank/

Enjoy and have a great day!

Linda R.

References

Prakash, Neha. (2013, March 11). Man Dressed as Plant Pranks Passersby. MASHABLE! Online.

Used E-Books? Political Silencing Attempt At Blocking Report On Radical Intellectual Property Reform Backfires & The Photo Finalists in the 2013 Smithsonian Nature Photography Contest

Linda Reimer

Used E-Books?  As anyone who reads our library tech blog regularly knows I tend to get up on my soap box over the issue of digital content ownership or more precisely the lack thereof! I think the fact that you can buy a print copy of The Grapes of Wrath, buy a DVD copy of Star Wars and a CD copy of Abbey Road and actually own those items and keep them forever, donated them to your public library, bequeath them to whomever you wish in your will, sell them or give them away because you own them but that you cannot likewise actually purchase electronic versions of the same items makes no sense. It is not as if the words of the Grapes of Wrath are different if you read the printed book or the e-book, or that the movie Star Wars has a different ending if you watch a digital copy of it on your tablet or laptop or that the songs on Abbey Road are different if they are digital and played on a Smartphone, tablet or computer than they would be if you played the CD on the CD player in your car.

And as a librarian in a public library I am a firm believer that being able to own the printed word in book form is an essential thread in the tapestry of intellectual freedom. And I hold the reverse to be equally true – that the fact that you can’t own books, in the form of e-books, is a growing threat to intellectual freedom.

Of course, public libraries are known as places that protect and preserve information; the intent being that as much information is openly available to members of the public as possible. Further and in relation, the ability to own books, in the form of printed books, has traditionally been a pillar of our free and open democratic society. And the fact that anyone can go to a public library and read any of the books or journals kept there or access information online for free – that allows people access to information that they can use to think and grow intellectually and fosters creativity and depth and breadth of informed decision making regarding a great variety of issues.

For indeed, how can you research a subject be it the history of economic growth in the U.S., the reasons World War I exploded into being in 1914, the best refrigerator to buy or the best county legislative candidate to vote for without having access to books, periodicals and Internet accessed information about those subjects? And most people don’t have the money to purchase all the books and reading materials they’d need throughout their lives to research subjects for personal, academic or professional reasons; nor do a solid number of people have the option to have paid Internet access in their homes.

With all of that in mind, I think public libraries have an essential role to play in preserving and protecting information so it is available both now and in the future for anyone who might need to access that information to make an informed decision, do personal, professional or academic research, write a credible fact based report or simply to learn and grow as an individual.  And being able to preserve and protect information requires that we be able to purchase the information contained in books and journals as we have traditional done – and in the 21st century that material has to include e-books – this is essential because we are moving towards a society that is increasingly accessing the “printed” word through e-books and e-books are currently not being sold by publishers but instead are being licensed to public libraries and individuals as if they were a new version of Microsoft Word that you can license and use but not own and not give to anyone else.

Having gotten up on my soap box and said all of that – you won’t be surprised to hear me say I was thrilled to read an article in the New York Times this morning titled Imagining a Swap Meet for E-Books and Music which discusses the very point that consumers and public libraries cannot currently own digital content, in the form of e-books, e-videos and e-music titles and that this fact is being challenged by lawsuits and on the coming-soon-front the fact that both Amazon and iTunes are apparently working on used e-book stores to work into their sales ecosystems that will allow their customers to sell their purchased e-books and other e-items (music and videos); this in opposition to the way publishers and media companies have sold digital books, audio books, videos and music over the last ten years – as if they were copyright protected software.

Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/08/technology/revolution-in-the-resale-of-digital-books-and-music.html?ref=technology&_r=0

Political Silencing Attempt At Blocking Report On Radical Intellectual Property Reform Backfires: Recently the Republic Study Committee, which is a conservative think tank housed inside the House of Representatives, directed one of their staff members, 25-year-old Derek Khanna, to write a report on the subject of intellectual property reform. And in 2013 intellectual property refers not simply to physical materials in the form of printed books, printed journals, DVDs and CDs but also to digital content in the form of e-book and electronic video and audio works.  Now I know I mentioned that this think tank is a conservative one – so you won’t be surprised when I tell that they weren’t pleased when Mr. Khanna wrote a report titled “Three Myths about Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it” in which he set down on the printed page the very opposite of what the conservative think tank wanted – that in contrast to current conservative political and business views that hold that strict copyright control is a good thing and fosters innovation within U.S. society that, as Mr. Khanna states in the report, the opposite is true. Mr. Khanna notes of current copyright law that: “copyright violates nearly every tenet of laissez-faire capitalism. Under the current system of copyright, producers of content are entitled to a guaranteed, government instituted, government subsidized content-monopoly.”

Of course Mr. Kannah in essence wrote what the Republic Study Committee thought was a very liberal report and they fired him for that fact, blocked him from getting another job with a different Republic group and tried to silence him by deleting the official report. Mr. Khanna has bounced back from all of this by going public with his report and doing his upmost to promote the ideal of intellectual freedom and that, in relation, our current copyright system needs major reforming. He was even instrumental in gaining attention, along with his fellow petition organizer Sina Khanifar, for the recent petition found on the official White House website that protested a proposed legal amendment that would ban consumers from “unlocking” their cell phones once their initial contract with their carrier (i.e. AT&T, Verizon etc.) was completed. In other words what conservative politicians were trying to do was make it a crime to take the cell phone you paid for that you own after your cell phone contract with the initial carrier ends and switch to a new cell phone carrier and still use that same cell phone. Oh there was little loophole in the legislation you could ask the initial cell phone company through which you bought the cell phone for permission to switch to a new carrier and still use that phone.  Somehow I sincerely doubt that the original cell phone carrier would give you that permission if there was any way around doing so!

And perhaps needless to say there is a link to an article on this subject included in this blog posting! The article is from the Tech Crunch site, and is titled How a Fired Republican Staffer Became a Powerful Martyr For Open Internet, here’s the link:

http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/08/how-a-fired-republican-staffer-became-a-powerful-martyr-for-open-internet/

And if you’d like to check out Mr. Khanna’s report regarding needed copyright reform – here’s the link to the whole enchilada:

http://www.publicknowledge.org/files/withdrawn_RSC_Copyright_reform_brief.pdf

The Photo Finalists in the 2013 Smithsonian Nature Photography Contest: And if you’ve read this far you may be pleased to see that this final topic has nothing whatsoever to do with e-books, digital content or copyright reform! I came across the photos that Smithsonian readers have picked as the ten finalist photos in Smithsonian’s 2013 Photo Contest and they are really cool!  All the photos focus on the natural world and were taken by amateur photographers and are breathtaking so I urge you to check them out!

And you can check the photos on the Smithsonian website via the following link:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/10th-annual/10th-Annual-Photo-Contest-Finalists-Natural-World-194333591.html

Have a great weekend!

Linda R.

References

Chaffetz, Jason. (2013, March 8). How A Fired Republican Staffer Became A Powerful Martyr For Internet Activists.

Finalists PhotoContest 2012. Smithsonian. Online. Accessed March 8, 2013.

Khanna, Derek. (2012, November 16). RSC Policy Brief: Three Myhts about Copyright Law and Where to Start to Fix it. publicknowledge.org. Online.

Streitfeld, David. (2013, March 7). Imagining A Swap Meet for E-Books and Music. New York Times. Online. 

New Roku, Tablet Use Growing & Old Fashioned Electric Moonlights

Linda Reimer

New Roku: A new Roku streaming video player, called the Roku 3, has just hit the market. All the reviews of this player I’ve seen have been positive. The player has a faster processor which is supposed to deliver video at five times the Roku 2’s speed, offers a brand new tile like interface, the ability to search for television shows or movies across all 700 Roku channels (i.e. Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video etc.) and a cool new remote headphone feature that allows users to plug earbuds or headphones into the remote control and thus mute the sound on the television. Thus if one person in the room is reading and the other wants to watch a loud action film – that latter person can plug headphones or earbuds into the remote control and the sound on the TV will be muted but will come in loud and clear via the headphones or earbuds.

As a cord cutter of four years and the owner of several previous models of both the Apple TV (that’s Apple’s media streaming player) and the Roku player – I will be upgrading to the new Roku 3 shortly! I love my Roku player and actually have music playing in my home via Pandora or TuneIn Radio channels most of the time – but I also watch television shows and news via the Roku too usually via Amazon’s Instant Video store or Netflix.

Roku actually sells four models of media streaming players and they range in price from $49 for the basic entry level Roku LT to $99 for the new Roku 3 that has more of the proverbial bells and whistles.

The only caveat regarding the Roku 3 is that, unlike all other Roku models, you must use it in conjunction with an HDTV.

Here’s a link to a review of the Roku 3 by Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal:

http://live.wsj.com/video/mossberg-reviews-the-roku-3/E1EC5008-E26D-43BB-A15B-F54F4E4904EB.html#!E1EC5008-E26D-43BB-A15B-F54F4E4904EB

A second link to a review of the Roku 3 by CNET:

http://reviews.cnet.com/roku-3/

And a link to the Roku site itself just in case anyone would like to compare Roku models:

http://www.roku.com/roku-products

Tablet Use Growing: Adobe Digital Marketing has just released a new report that shows that consumer use of mobile devices to access the Internet is growing and that more people are now using tablets to access the web than Smartphones. Tablet Internet access was up to 8% of total Internet access for 2012 and Smarphone Internet access came in at 7% of all Internet traffic. And while desktops and laptops still hold the largest sway over Internet access at 85% of the total Internet usage pie the fact that tablet Internet access now comprises 8% of all Internet access is notable because that figure is double the percentage it was for 2011.

Here’s a link to an Adobe blog articl  on the subject, titled Tablets trump smartphones in global website traffic, that gives more in-depth information regarding the on the subject of the growing popularity and usage of tablets:

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/digital-index/tablets-trump-smartphones-in-global-website-traffic/

And a link to a Mashable article on tablet usage in classrooms that talks about the new Amplify Tablet that will compete with the iPad for classroom usage – it looks like a cool tablet with special apps and separate sections for work under umbrella categories like English and Social Studies.

Here’s the link:

http://mashable.com/2013/03/06/classroom-tablets/

Old Fashioned Electric Moonlights: I never heard of “Moonlights” before and was fascinated by an article I stumbled across online on that subject. The article notes that in the early days of the electric era people wanted as much bright light at night in towns and cities as they could get and municipal leaders were having a tough time installing enough electric street lights and keeping them running – it seems the cords that plugged those lights into their power sources keep coming unplugged and could lead not just to an unlighted street at night but also to electrocution if one wasn’t careful. And so many municipalities came up with a solution of installing a number of bright lights on top of high towers. These lights were called Moonlights – the idea of course being that the light towers cast as much light as a bright moon on a dark night so you could see as you were walking down the street on a moonless night. The Moonlights did indeed bright up the night by shining light down upon cities streets but since the light came down at angles blue-tinged light was seen by passersby and of course people, buildings, trees or animals that were between the Moonlights and anything else blocked out the light; so eventually the Moonlights were replace by electric lights set up on posts at intervals – like the modern electric lights we have today.

The Atlantic features an article on the old Moonlights, titled Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon; and the article is cool; it features a number of photos of these early electric lighting towers and a more in-depth description of where they were installed and when they were in use.

Here’s the link

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/tower-of-light-when-electricity-was-new-people-used-it-to-mimic-the-moon/273445/

Have a great day! 

Linda R.

References

Fiegerman, Seth. (2013, March 6). News Corp. Education Unit Unveils Tablet to Rival iPad in Classrooms. Mashable. Online.

Garber, Megan. (2013, March 6). Tower of Light: When Electricity Was New, People Used It to Mimic the Moon. The Atlantic. Online.

Mossberg Reviews The Roku 3. (2013, March 5). Wall Street Journal: Digits Live. Online.

The new $99 Roku 3: Overhauled interface, faster chip, and private-listening mode (hands-on). (2013, March 5). CNET. Online.

White, Tyler. (2013, March 5). Tablets trump smartphones in global website traffic. Adobe Digital Marketing Blog. Online.

 

 

When Was The Last Time You Wrote A Paper Note?

Linda Reimer

This past weekend was my weekend to work at the library. And on Saturday morning our e-mail system went out. So instead of typing emails for my co-workers to receive on Monday (my day off) – I had to actually take pen to paper and write notes for three co-workers.

And actually having to take the time to write those notes made me ponder when I actually had last written a note – not just a post-it-note for someone but a real note that required me to address the note and write a few sentences to include the information I wanted to relay. And I think handwriting, that is writing a note, letter or card in cursive writing, is a dying art. I even found out while discussing the subject of handwriting notes with our Children’s Librarian that the children attending our local elementary schools no longer learn how to write in cursive in school. I couldn’t believe that fact. The kids don’t learn to write they only learn to print!

I suppose if I really think about it I can understand why — that with shrinking budgets local educators figured that almost everyone owns a computer, smartphone or tablet and so much school work is completed today by typing on a keyboard and having the printed word appear on the screen and then printed page via a keyboard – why should they waste the time and effort teaching kids how to write in cursive when they could spend the time teaching kids other more modern skills.

But still…

I cannot imagine not learning that skill. I can still remember going into my first grade classroom and seeing the cursive posters on the wall and thinking “Wow, I’m a big kid now I’m going to learn to write!” But perhaps I’m simply showing my vintage….

I do think that actually taking the time and effort to write something by hand shows that you thought whatever you wrote actually merited the time and effort you took into neatly writing it. And I think that a handwritten birthday or anniversary note certainly relays that you care to the person celebrating the birthday or the persons celebrating their anniversary more so by far than a computer typed note or email.

Now granted I love the modern technology and the way it allows us to access information and communicate with each other 24/7 but even so it seems to me that handwriting is an important skill that we should value and continue to foster and use.

What do you think?

And when was the last time you wrote, in cursive, a note longer thanan  post-it-note?

I’m sure there are some hand-written journal keepers out there somewhere!

Have a great day!

Linda R.