Facebook

For those who are starved for Attention and have Hours to ruminate in Cyberspace, Facebook is just for you. While Lumber Room is quite content with the current social Situation, Facebook affords one to find persons with similar Interests & join numerous social Groups. Lumber Room explored the Applications feature offered on the Website & was twice unsuccessful in directing the posts from our Blog to appear in our Facebook Profile.

Lumber Room did manage to upload a Program entitled "Spatial IQ Test" which provides a slight amusement regarding one's Intelligence. All who visit the Lumber Room Facebook Page are welcome to try their Hands at accomplishing the various Tests.

"I only go out to get me a fresh Appetite for being alone."

Lord Byron

Overdrive & Electronic Books

Once again Lumber Room has been astonished -- although, we should be used to it by now -- by the lack of compatibility of the Overdrive Audio-Book Software with the current & not so current MacIntosh operating Systems. Suffice it to say that if Lumber Room endeavors to hear a Work of spoken Words through the Computer, we will have to do it the old fashioned Way, uploading CDs. As yet another Insult to Injury, Overdrive also offers a Software Program for upstart MP3 players that are not iPods.

In their defence, Overdrive does have a growing Library of readable Electronic Books that can be accessed with the Adobe Reader. An interesting note that in MacIntosh Tiger (OSX.4) & Leopard (OSX.5) when using the Safari Browser a pdf File opens automatically & expands into a complete Screen rather than as a downloaded File that must be launched to read.

An advanced Search of Literature through the BCL Overdrive Catalogue for Electronic Books in pdf File yielded only one Work of note & a modern Work at that, 1984. Mr. Orwell, who is responsible for this widely read Work was prone to Fits of Paranoia & an intense Belief that someone other than the L-rd above was watching him. Lumber Room has heard that this was to due to a Confrontation with a rampaging Elephant some years ago during his Service as a Policeman in Burma.

Before becoming an established literary Lion, Mr. Orwell, who was a moderately successful Author, was invited to broadcast over the BBC Indian Service (1941-43) originating from Bush House, London as a Countermeasure to German Propaganda (mostly classical Music) broadcast to the Sub-continent. Many of the recorded Broadcasts survive today & were available online at BBC's Website during the Celebration of the one hundredth Anniversary of his Birth in 2003. The removal of these Broadcasts from the BBC Website & their Refusal to broadcast Premier League Football over the World Service, plus various political Differences with the Library Lumber Room have created a Loathing for BBC Media. But, alas I am travelling on a Tangent.

"The only concession I want from Germany is that she gives me a loaf of bread, tells the gentlemen with muskets at the main gate to look the other way, and leaves the rest to me. In return I am prepared to hand over India, an autographed set of my books, and to reveal the secret process of cooking sliced potatoes on a radiator. This offer holds good till Wednesday week."

P.G. Wodehouse -- speaking of his Internment at Trost, Belgium 1941

Podcasting

Podcasting is yet another electronic Craze for Those who cannot bear to be one Moment without being plugged in or, as the Phrase states, "out of the Loop". To say truth, Lumber Room finds these Persons & others with mobile Telephones constantly stuck to their Ears, as if surgically attached, contemptible. Can you imagine a Coachman managing a Team of four, or even two with one of these wretched Devices in his Ear? A Prescription for fatality -- the Horror of it! Inconsiderate indeed!

By now, one should have naturally surmised, that downloading iTunes to the office Computer would be unsuccessful since the Persons on staff who actually use the Computers do not have administrative Privilidges. Nevertheless, Lumber Room proceeded to the Websites of some of the other Procurers of Podcasts.

Lumber Room was also not successfull in downloading a Podcast Aggregator from Podcast Alley -- although the list of Offerings was interesting. However, in the persistance of the Task at hand we used the Windows Media Player installed on our office Computer to search for Podcasts. The result was to find a BBC Interview with Brenda Dayne who has created an ongoing Series of Podcasts about Knitting. Lumber Room visited the Website Cast-On & was able to download a Podcast through the Windows Media Player. It actually worked. Now if Lumber Room could only find Something more inline with our own Interests.

וַיֵּאָסֵף כָּל־אִישׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶל־הָעִיר כְּאִישׁ אֶחָד חֲבֵרִים׃

So all the Men of Israel were gathered against the City knit together as one Man.

Judges 20:11

YouTube Treasures

While perusing YouTube, Lumber Room stumbled upon a Curiousity affecting a Dialogue of the first Encounter of Mr. Alexander Pope & Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. This initiated a heated Romance on His part & an amusing Rebuff on Her's for which Mr. Pope castigated Her in satirical Form as often as possible, as was His Fashion, by referring to Her as Sappho for the rest of His Days.

On another Note a delightful Rendition of Mr. Händel's "Endless Pleasure" by Renée Fleming was found & is Here posted as a musical Diversion.

If at First You Don't Succeed . . .

Holy tabula rasa!

Wufoo is a neat little Site that lets one create online Forms. Unfortunately, it only provides for three Forms gratis & then demands Payment for further use. Needless to say that the Lumber Room, while not extravagant but not known for penny-pinching, has so far, declined the Invitation to pay for additional Services. Although Lumber Room is using the Web Facility for free, the Weblords of the Site were gracious to provide a Link in order to access my Vocabulary Quiz Form. Lumber Room does not provide the Answers -- Best of luck obtaining Them!

"The People, though always right in Sentiment, are not always right in Opinion."

Henry Mackenzie

Seomoz Web 2.0 Awards

While the Lumber Room was exploring Seomoz for Website applications to try out we stumbled upon Goowy online Desktop. Once we gained access to the Site & signed up for an Account the Browser froze disabling all the keen Functions like calendar, music library, mail. Then, the Screen was refreshed and look what happened! Of all the impertinent #@$%*! The Lumber Room has never been so flabbergasted! What an Outrage! A grave Assault upon Aereopagitica. Everyone at the Club is discussing it.

By-the-by: the "look what happened" Link's intended Target only works when viewing at a Staff Computer in BCL, otherwise, it will direct you to the Log-in Page in Goowy.  

Online Word Processing

This is a Test of the "Zoho Writer" in Courier New 10 point. It works like other Word Processors and can save your Documents online. Easy to use, however the Spellcheck has an Alert (red print) but no Dictionary. Export function only works in Page view. We were able to copy & paste into the Library Lumber Room Blog.

Zoho Writer in offline mode enables you to access your Writer Documents even when you are not connected to the Internet. Offline mode requires Google Gears Browser Extension.

Download and install Google Gears

Once installed, restart the Browser and click Go Offline Link to download 15 Documents based on the sort Order selected in the Zoho Writer Main Page. To download more than 15 Documents, click on down Arrow next to Go Offline Link. Of course, one cannot download "Google Gears" at work because most of us have no administrative Privileges. Lumber Room will also have to check to see if this Application is compatible with OSX. Zoho, Zoho! It's off to write I go . . .

Playing in the Sandbox

The Lumber Room recently visited the bcltlc wiki site and fixed the bcltlc front page by changing the word "Page" to "page." Probably a trick question.

It's a Wiki!

Granted, there are many entries in Wikipedia that are unique resources for information on topics not usually discussed in academia or written about in peer reviewed journals, and the Lumber Room is thankful when someone has created a somewhat reliable entry with a bibliography. Still, when conducting a search requested by a telephone enquiry, we find it necessary to state that we are quoting information from the Wikipedia, thus, covering the possibility that more authoritative information may be required. Suprisingly, so far, the Lumber Room has found little to disagree with when encountering entries about topics known to us.

A wiki listed by the T.L.C. 2.0 course that interests the Lumber Room is the Library Success wiki. It is thorough and covers the gamut of library related issues. The interactive site was created by Meredith Farkas, who has written extensively on the subject of wikis and the relationship of the form with libraries. Since it is so large, one improvement would be to develop several Rss feeds by topic to keep up with all the new additions to the site. The "recent changes" page is really not effective for this.

"Back in Nagasaki where the fellows chew tobaccky And the women wicky-wacky-woo!"

Mort Dixon, (Harry Warren, music)