How Fast is Google Chrome?

Check out some of these experiments!  Using both Google Chrome and Javascript, programmers are showing us how fast and flexible this browser really is.  As you’re playing with some of these experiments, consider how quickly it responds to your mouse/input.  It’s very much like having an application installed on your computer — except that it’s [...]

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Emulator for Digital Materials

Research being done in Europe hopes to create KEEP – Keeping Emulation Environments Portable.  The goal is to create a universal emulator that can open and play obsolete formats from the 1970s on.  Although we normally think of digital documents, this emulator hopes to also allow people to work with multimedia files and games.
[BBC]

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Internet Access Via Light Bulbs

Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of New Mexico are researching the feasibility of using light and light bulbs as access points for Internet/network access using a 5-year grant from the National Science Foundation.  The idea would be to use LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) to both create light and be the basis for optical [...]

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Are You Too Old to Drive? Soon, Your Car May Tell You

It’s true!  MIT’s AgeLab is working on just such a car.  It will tell you whether you’re too sleepy, hungry, or just too old to drive.  But don’t worry — it won’t be ready for at least another 20 years — just in time to catch the baby boomers!
Although I’m spinning this negatively just for [...]

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Web Publishers Have Free Access to Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia Britannica is now providing access to their content free to those who publish on the web.  Called Britannica WebShare, it allows bloggers, webmasters, writers, and editors to use EB at no charge.  When linking to EB, those using those links will be able to go directly to the content.
There is an application form and [...]

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Google Settles with Authors and Publishers

The Association of Research Libraries has posted a very detailed summary of the settlement which focuses on the library issues.  Remember that this has not yet been approved by the courts.
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Through Google Book Search, Google had been providing snippets of copyrighted materials for their users.  As a result, they were sued both by the Authors [...]

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Piece of Chocolate for Your Password?

Apparently in London, women were more likely than men to say yes to this question.  Of the 21% that said yes, 45% were women and 10% were men.  This is actually good news.  Last year, when they did this study, 64% of those studied said they would trade their password for a chocolate bar.  So, [...]

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Museums are Tagging!

For some time, 8 museums have been asking museum-goers to tag their collections in an attempt to see if tagging improves access to their collections.  The answer was a definite “yes”, so the museum community is continuing down this road.
The project, called “steve,” is also a set of open-source tagging tools.  ”Steve” is not an [...]

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Digital Preservation Defined

In the past year, the ALA’s Preservation and Reformatting Section of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services has been working on a definition for “digital preservation.”  Although it will continue to be developed and revised as we understand more about the subject, they have created three forms of the definition:  short, medium, and [...]

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Study of Public and Academic Library Blogs

Walt Crawford has analyzed hundreds of public and academic library blogs. He then provides metrics in two separate reports based on the active blogs he’s found. Both reports are quite interesting. See where you fit in!
Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples — $20 for download; $29.50 for paperback
Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples — [...]

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