Category Archives: wordpress

Changes

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There have been quite a few changes around here in the last few weeks. The major one for this blog is that I’ve upgraded it to WordPress 3.0 — a very smooth and easy process, by the way — and changed the theme to one of the ones that come with WordPress 3.0 because I liked it so much. The typography is easier to read and the theme is clean and uncluttered.

Another change is that I’m leaving my current job to go back to the library at the company where I work. I’m leaving information architecture to focus on managing the library’s web presence along with a few other people, starting July 12. I’m happy to be going back to a place with which I am familiar, to a setting where I think I belong.

I’ve also begun what I think is the fifth year of teaching an online course at UIUC GSLIS. This year is the first time I have used GSLIS’s new online classroom platform, called Elluminate, which is much more interactive and functional than the previous method of conducting classes over the Internet. One of the things I am most looking forward to in the class is the last online class session, when Tim Spalding of LibraryThing will join us to share his views on librarians, the future of books, library data, or anything else he deems important to discuss.

A smooth upgrade to WordPress 2.7

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Earlier today I wasn’t feeling great and left work to go home and sleep most of the day. After waking up and feeling a little better, I decided to upgrade this blog to the latest version of WordPress (2.7).  The process went quite smoothly.  My immediate impression is that the admin interface is fabulously better than before, much more intuitive and user-friendly. It is also quite configurable to suit my tastes.  In addition, I upgraded to the latest version of NextGen Gallery, the plugin that powers my photos page.  It is, again, a much better version with some nice new features such as a CoolIris slideshow that works very well.

WordPress app for the iPhone and iPod Touch

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I’m lucky to own an iPod Touch but I can’t help longing for an iPhone 3G too :-) The main difference between them, for me, is that the iPhone 3G can truly be an “always on” device in terms of Internet access because of its dual wifi/cell capabilities. The iPod Touch can only connect via wifi, and I find that aspect of its functionality too limiting. On the other hand, I don’t want the additional service costs that an iPhone would require.

Just about every iPhone application also works on an iPod Touch, but with sometimes significant limitations. For instance, all of that cool location-based functionality that iPhone users get to have isn’t available for the iPod Touch since it is wifi only. When I’m at work, for example, there is no wifi access that I can use. Well, there is wifi access but I’m prohibited from using it. (Oh how I wish for ubiquitous, free wifi wherever I go!)

I’ve tried quite a few of the free apps in the Apple App store and like most of them, but I was particularly excited to read this a.m. of the availability of a WordPress app. This app is free and it works quite well from what I can tell so far. If you are an iPhone or iPod Touch owner and also manage a WordPress blog then this software is a must-have.

Other apps that I particularly like so far include the Facebook app, Twitterific, WeatherBug, and Stanza (a free ebook reader that I think is quite functional). Another free app that I think is really cool but is more of a geeky showpiece than something practical and useful at this point, is PangeaVR.

Some other library bloggers have pointed out the lack of library-oriented applications for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. I agree that this is unfortunate and I look forward to reading about new developments in this space soon. I wish I was smart enough to develop something myself, but I’m not.

What’s going on here

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If you’re one of the small group of people who regularly reads my blog, you may be wondering what’s going on here right now. Well, after several years with one web hosting company, last night I switched to a different one. So far I am quite pleased with the decision. However, I am having trouble getting my WordPress content back into place. Bear with me for a while as I sort things out.

Link meme

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*Start Copying Here*
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*Stop Copying*

The Internet can be a wonderful resource

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This weekend I got into a bread-baking craze.  My whole family loves bread and nothing — really, it’s true — beats good, homemade bread.  I’ve always enjoyed making it but the time spent doing that has been infrequent for several years.  We have an old bread machine that we’ve used for a long time and I’ve mostly made bread that way.  Trouble was, I lost the manual a long time ago and could never find it.

Yesterday I found the complete manual, nicely scanned and FREE for downloading as a PDF file because someone helpfully posted it on an Internet forum.  I was thrilled!  I immediately printed it out and put it in a binder to keep.  Having the manual makes a big difference because although bread machines are pretty easy to use, each one has its quirks and recommended ways of doing things such as what order to use when adding ingredients.  Last night I made a nice, basic rustic loaf and it turned out great.

Today I decided to make challah bread, one of my favorites.  I used the recipe that came in the manual of our bread machine.  I noticed at the end of the instructions that it calls for six, not three, braids.  I’ve never done six braids before.  I sat there trying to figure out what to do for a few minutes and then decided, forget that, I’ll make two loafs with three braids each.  That’s pretty easy to do!  But then I thought afterward, I wonder if there is any information on the Internet that might help me figure out how to do the more complicated braid?  A quick Google search on “how to braid six” brought me to the Chai Time blog replete with a nice video demonstrating exactly how to do it.  Very cool!

In all of this, I was reminded once again that the Internet can be a wonderful resource at times.  I would never, ever have been able to learn and do these things, to find the needed information so quickly, if there was no Internet available.

Zotero on steroids

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I’m a big Zotero fan.  Anyone who has access to the Firefox web browser and needs or wants to keep track of bibliographies, websites, and other material used for research should use it instead of the bloated, overly expensive, difficult to use commercial citation managers such as Reference Manager, RefWorks, ProCite, and the like.  Zotero does everything you need and more, and does it better than the competition.  Did I mention it’s free?!

Today in the Chronicle of Higher Education there is an article (it’s freely available, you don’t need a subscription to access it) about a proposal made by the creators of Zotero to put it on steroids.  Put simply, they intend to make Zotero the tool of choice for researchers, scientists, professors, and others to load their research works into a shared database hosted by the Internet Archive.  The article notes the general failure (oh wait, I mean, lack of success) that libraries have had with doing this on an institution-by-institution basis using tools such as DSpace.  There is a scathing review about so-called institutional repositories and their use by libraries by one of the people I’d deem to be a foremost expert on utilizing DSpace, Dorothea Salo. It is well worth reading.

Anyway, I think this whole idea — actually, it’s more than that because the Mellon Foundation just dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars to make it a reality — has many beneficial implications and I hope Dan Cohen and his team at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University have all the success they hope for with it.  (Thanks to Wally Grotophorst for the mention.)

Sick, sick, sick

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I have been sick for a week now and I am sick of it. I wish there was a way that I could build up my immune system. All of the kids except Keegan have been sick — for the second time in as many weeks — as well.In other news, in the past three days I received comments on old posts. Once upon a time I used a WordPress plugin that automatically turned off comments on old posts. In the last WordPress upgrade, I quit using it. I’m glad I did, now. It constantly amazes me that an obscure blog such as this can still generate or reach people on the Internet.One recent comment in particular, from colleague Roy Tennant, deserves more attention and a thoughtful response. Roy takes issue with my criticisms of his employer, OCLC, and asks some really good questions. I hope to provide a response soon, in a separate post.