It’s not every day that you come across sentences like the following:
If I were a non-native English speaker, such wording would probably blow my mind.
Ok, maybe it’s not so weird, but it just tickled my funny bone.
Taken from a New York Times article about the recent resignation of the president of the Red Cross.
Great article (found via Steven Cohen’s Library Stuff blog) on LibraryThing. While some competitors have recently entered the same type of niche (such as Shelfari), noone does it better than Tim Spalding, Abby Blachly, and others at LibraryThing.
Link to A Cozy Book Club, in a Virtual Reading Room – New York Times
I’ve long been fascinated with passenger jets and the whole flying experience, so it was with keen interest that I’ve read as much as possible about the decades-long knock-’em-drag-out fight between Airbus and Boeing over who will truly dominate the skies. I have to admit to being partial to Boeing. Sort of like rooting for the home team, even if, at times, they are sleazy and don’t deserve to win. When I first read about the upcoming so-called “super jumbo” jet, the A350, being built by Airbus, I honestly thought that the war was over and that Airbus had won. It is an amazing machine and I can’t wait to see it and perhaps fly in it some day.
However I have been really intrigued by Boeing’s latest offering, the 787 Dreamliner, and note that it is already unbelievably successful in terms of sales, even though it won’t go into service until 2008 at the earliest. (I think the A350 goes into service in 2007.) They aren’t really competitors in terms of the markets they serve but they represent the two biggest weapons in each camp, and they offer completely different views of how the industry will change in the next 10-20 years. Today’s article in the New York Times (Boeing Bets the House on Its 787 Dreamliner – New York Times) is an excellent article that discusses Boeing’s big gamble on the 787. This and other recent news about the 787 and the very positive reaction it is receiving from airlines has convinced me that the “war” is certainly not over. Like the A350, I can’t wait to see my first 787 fly overhead a couple of years from now, much less have a chance to fly in one. My current favorite jet in which to fly is the 777, which is a great plane, I think.
As an aside, one of the things I like most about where I currently work is that Endeavor’s headquarters are literally next door to O’Hare Airport here in Chicago. Passenger jets of all types and from all over the world fly over the building at close range, offering me the chance to take a look at them and try to identify what kind of jets they are and from which airlines. I know, it sounds a bit childish, but who cares. I think it’s a fun and innocent, if quirky, pasttime.
The latest issue of Beneath the Bell Tower, my library’s online newsletter, was made available in December but I neglected to mention it here ’til now. Of particular note is that this issue features a completely new and more professional design thanks to Ashley, one of the student web developers who worked for me (she graduated in December). There is a feature article on books that Taylor faculty deem influential, as well as an article on the recent visit to campus by John Stott, renowned Bible expositor, lecturer, minister, and (for those Americans who are eternally interested in “royalty”) longtime chaplain to the Queen of England. There was a recent New York Times article about him, an op-ed piece by David Brooks (registration required to view). Another article is about the interesting things held in our very own Archives & Special Collections, including a cow creamer collection that will be featured in an upcoming episode of Unwrapped, a favorite TV show of ours on The Food Network (it’ll air on Feb. 21 at 9p EDT).
I couldn’t agree more with David Pogue’s description in his New York Times column of the “stealth benefit” of the new iMac G5, OS X, as “rock solid.” Mentioned in MacMinute. It really amazes me that more people aren’t clued into the fact that OS X, as Pogue says, is “100 percent free from viruses, Trojan horses, spyware and all the grief that comes with them.” Even in my own small academic library, the grief of dealing with Windows is very real and ever-present. The amount of effort and upkeep it takes to maintain our PCs (even just our library staff PCs) on Windows XP is absolutely ridiculous. Why should I have to worry about (and spend my time or a student’s time installing and updating) third party software to detect and remove spyware, adware, and more? And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Another example is the infamous WinXP Service Pack 2. Don’t get me started on that one…
What annoys the heck out of me is that our university’s IT department is completely sold on Windows and it seems like if they had their way, all Mac computers would be banned from campus. I fully understand the desire to maximize limited resources by trying to be as uniform as possible with a computing platform, and I also understand that Wintel equipment is significantly cheaper to buy and all, but just about everybody I speak with in that area is totally ignorant about Mac computers and OS X in particular. In fact, anyone with whom I’ve ever spoken about the Mac (yes, I do try to evangelize) is openly hostile to Macs. Another example: I’m on a university-wide strategic technology, planning, and assessment committee. Recently this group went through a prioritization exercise to determine what issues should be top priorities for the near future. One of those issues on the lengthy list of possibilities was Mac support. The end result of the survey? Mac support came in dead last. I think I was the only one in the group who put it in the top ten.
OK, sorry, rant over. But wait, there is one more thing that I can’t resist mentioning: I can run just about any WinXP program on my Mac (using Virtual PC) — and easily communicate and play nicely with our Windows network at work at the same time. Top that, Microsoft.