Category Archives: Technology

Gizmodo | A Look Behind the Scenes of the Internet Archives Impossible Task

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Last fall, the Internet Archive celebrated a massive milestone, as the “online Library of Alexandria” reached 10 Petabytes of stored information. Yes, that means 10,000,000,000,000,000 bytes accessible to anyone. Wow.

Filmmaker Jonathan Minard was on hand for the celebration, and in the short doc above he speaks to the Archives founders about how it expanded from a project dedicated to cataloging everything ever published online—to a project to document every piece of information in existence. Turns out its possible—we just need the will to do it.

via Gizmodo | A Look Behind the Scenes of the Internet Archives Impossible Task.

A Robot For Autistic Kids, Now In Schools | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation

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The humanoid NAO Robot can interact with kids in a way that grownups sometimes can’t.

via A Robot For Autistic Kids, Now In Schools | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation.

Extraordinary and heartwarming.

You may also like:

Robot Aids in Therapy for Autistic Children | The Wall Street Journal Online

How and Why to Teach Your Kids to Code | LifeHacker

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Whether or not your child grows up to be the next Zuckerberg, programming is a highly useful skill for him or her to learn. It teaches vital problem-solving, creativity, and communication skills. Plus, it can be downright fun for you both. Here are some of the best tried-and-true apps for teaching kids of all ages how to code.

via How and Why to Teach Your Kids to Code | LifeHacker

Apps discussed cover from the very young to older learners and include:

  • Daisy the Dinosaur
  • Move the Turtle
  • Hopscotch
  • Scratch
  • Stencyl
  • App Inventor
  • Alice
  • Pluralsight video lessons
  • Codeacademy, Khan Academy

You may also like:

Collection of Links: Resources for Learning to Code | The Modern MLIS

Joss Whedon Praises Shakespeare’s Female Characters, Wants to Make a Ballet About a Library – Flavorwire

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“The ballet I’m thinking of wouldn’t actually be a film,” Whedon explained, “although I have many sort of floaty ideas, this would actually be performed by a ballet company on a stage. I’ve had this in my head for a long time. And, well, I’ve never actually told anybody anything about it. I’ll only say this much: it’s about a library.”

via Joss Whedon Praises Shakespeare’s Female Characters, Wants to Make a Ballet About a Library – Flavorwire.

Whedon is the director of the modern Much Ado About Nothing film that’s had a considerable amount of buzz (June 7 release) and the upcoming Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. television series. Must see. I’ll certainly be watching out for more news about his library ballet concept!

Joss Whedon Praises Shakespeare’s Female Characters, Wants to Make a Ballet About a Library – Flavorwire

Worldwide National Library Catalogs | OEDB.org

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National libraries are tasked with the centuries-long responsibility of preserving books and documents that keep a country’s history and heritage safe through war, disaster, and the passage of time. They’re also responsible for sharing these vast and valuable documents with citizens of the country, and the world.

National libraries are the absolute best resource for finding publications within any given country. This is thanks to legal deposit, legislation in many countries that requires publishers to provide the national library with a copy of each publication. In some countries, this even includes digital publications.

Through national library catalogs, you can search all of the publications within a country. Many national libraries also offer extensive digital collections, offering online researchers access to documents of historical importance, official publications, even images and video.

via Worldwide National Library Catalogs – OEDB.org.

The post provides a comprehensive list of Worldwide National Library Catalogs, including 3 from Canada. 

Cloud Jargon Unwound: Distinguishing Saas, IaaS and PaaS [Infographic] | ReadWrite

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Cloud Jargon Unwound: Distinguishing Saas, IaaS and PaaS [Infographic] | ReadWrite

Cloud Jargon

Trailer: Documentary Tackles the Future of Books – Stephen’s Lighthouse

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Trailer: Documentary Tackles the Future of Books – Stephen’s Lighthouse

10 reasons why Kingsoft Office is better than the competition | TechRepublic

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You’ve probably never heard of Kingsoft Office. That’s a shame because it’s one of the best office suites on the market. Though it doesn’t contain all the tools offered by either Microsoft Office or LibreOffice (it offers only a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation tools), it’s far more cost effective than the Microsoft offering and more stable than the LibreOffice alternative.

Don’t believe me? Until you actually try out the tool, the best way I can convince you is to give you 10 solid reasons why Kingsoft Office is superior to the competition.

See the article for the 10 reasons why Kingsoft Office is better than the competition | TechRepublic.

Kingsoft Office has free and paid versions.  Another potential tool to consider for libraries searching for low cost/free productivity software alternatives.

With Black Crown, Random House Gets Into Games – Forbes

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Random House, the home of 50 Shades of Grey and The Da Vinci Code, has extended part of its publishing empire into the world of games with The Black Crown Project, a story-based online game based on a suitcase by first-time author Rob Sherman.

via 50 Web-Compliant Shades: With Black Crown, Random House Gets Into Games – Forbes.

I enjoy immersive RPG, puzzle and mystery games. This project is creative and looks interesting. I think the website could use some work…some of the text is too small/fuzzy. It has the feel of the cold war…typewritten messages, gas masks, stained green backgrounds, the content decidedly weird, dreary and at times gruesome/offensive. I think this game would attract those who like the Bioshock and Metal Gear Solid series (n.b. it is a story-based game NOT a FPS game) but it’s not for me.

From the website: “The experience is free-to-play, with opportunities for eager users to make micropayments to unlock story strands, expedite the narrative and acquire items and status within the world.”

Black Corwn

 

Google, social media and librarians | Phil Bradley

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via Google, social media and librarians – YouTube.