Whenever I encounter what appears to be an obstacle to learning another aspect of technology, I play this little scenario in my head of stone-age man sitting around a fire complaining to his wife about how much he hates trying to keep a good sharp edge on a bronze tool and how much he wishes everything would go back to faithful chert and Clovis points. They were much easier to maintain, but since everyone had moved into the bronze market, no one is trading flint anymore.
It reminds me that the human condition is one of endless evolvement, and to forget that you were born into that long stream of change will only create problems when you look into the eyes of a new technology. With that said, I see a potential repellency for people interested in Adobe EPUB eBooks. For example when I go to the help page I see 22 categories of how-to's, what-if's, and where-to-looks before I can even look at the 123 titles we have available to check out. My stone-age side says, "never buy the new model before they work the bugs out, it will only be trouble." My evolving-man side says, "carry on to see if you can work through the complexity of the issue."
Now for the digital native they don't even know they have a challenge because they think the world has always been this way...it is a glorious oblivion they live in. To look at the eBook "help page" with all its complexity is like reading the 362 page manual for my DSLR camera written by a technical writer moonlighting while getting a third engineering degree from a country and culture on the other side of the globe. Why would I want to spend 45 minutes figuring out how to find and check out an eBook instead of reading an actual book or my camera manual for that matter? I know for certain technical writer's are intelligent, but you can never trust them to make sense. Have you ever seen camera reviews and how many people love the camera, but hate the written manual? Give me the goods - NOW! I'm old - I'll be dead soon enough and by-heavens if there is a hell on earth it is found somewhere in the "help page".
Whew...
Yes, I found my way to the list and checked out an eBook after having to ask reference staff how to get through "holds" and "book bags" to get it and now when I go to my library account on the website there is no mention of the eBook on my record. Did I check it out, or is it just so much ephemera - like a Thorazine
dream, early dementia, or a bad stay in the hospital?
As always this was a great learning experience and it gives me a further glimpse of the future, but I'll definitely stick to the love of handling physical books until it is no longer possible to get good flint.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
My Review of Barrier Dry Sack
Originally submitted at Mountain Gear
Keep everything absolutely dry with the Outdoor Research's Barrier Dry Sacks. Even if your gear takes a spill into a glacial stream or mountain lake, it'll stay dry within the waterproof nylon fabric that's fully seam taped so that not a drop of water finds its way in.
- Keep yo...
Santa's own sacks
By Mingus from Western Colorado on 12/22/2009
Pros: Lightweight, The Traveler, Easy to pack
Best Uses: Campgrounds, Backcountry Camping, Winter Conditions, Road Trips, River Trips, Day Trips
Describe Yourself: Outdoor Professional
What Is Your Gear Style: Minimalist
I am going through my old stuff sack collection from the past 30 years and giving them all away. I started using these lightweight dry sacks to store an extra base layer, gloves, and a jacket in my ski pack - it kept me from worrying about important things getting wet when repeatedly putting the skin bag back in my pack while doing laps in the backcountry. Then I got some larger ones to use as travel duffels for weekend truck packing - just fold them up and fasten the fastex and no worries about wet contents anymore. River people have long used this closure system and now with the light fabrics they are great for all outdoor applications.Get the bright colors so you can easily find them in the pack, truck or corner of the gear room.
(legalese)
Friday, December 4, 2009
My Review of Stratus Hooded Jacket - Men's
Originally submitted at Mountain Gear
Efficient synthetic fill gives this affordable insulator a broad climatic range. The Mammut Stratus Hooded Jacket has warm-for-the-weight proprietary insulation that holds in personal heat and a Micro Lite shell that repels wintry weather at camp or in town.
- The MICRO Lite Tex Performance sh...
The Swiss Have it Figured Out
By Mingus from Western Colorado on 12/4/2009
Pros: Lightweight, Warm
Best Uses: Cold Weather, Casual Wear, Belaying winter climbs, Hiking and Camping
Describe Yourself: Avid Adventurer
Mammut clothing and packs are always cut with an economy of materials and parts. They are perfect for the alpinist in that they don't veer into snowboard sizing or all the bunk a lot of pack manufacturers think is useful. This jacket is slightly long in the sleeves (which I love) with the thumb rings to keep them down when you have your arms up doing things that make for drafts around wrists and the small of the back. It is cut low across the back of the hips and the torso is a trim cut, eliminating bulk that hinders movement. Finally the hood is just right with or without a helmet, neither too tall nor too compact and the orb of space for your face is perfect for maximum visibility and the right amount of overhang. I would have given it five stars if it could negotiate time off with my boss.
(legalese)
Thursday, October 8, 2009
I Disproved Andy Warhol
Momentum has definately shifted in my favor for the moment. A friend of mine recently told me they adhered to Philippe Petit's idea that there is no such thing as talent, but that everything had to be earned through great effort. This is proving to be the case with Eric vs. Technology. Yesterday I couldn't land an image from the web where I needed it for assignment 15, today I discoved my blogsite name shows up on a Google seach for my web address. Freakshow!! Hyperventilate is going to scuff around the Google algorithms for 18 months if the NPR interview is correct. In addition to my appearance on the blue google search page I learned to scan old slides and upload to my blogspot so this ascent of J-Crack circa 1976 could prove I once had lots of hair. As for assignment 13 -- that is where this all started -- suffice it to say, I skimmed across soundsnap realizing I could find endless amusement in sounds with titles like "breathy animalistic wash 1" or "atmospheric swell - creepy and etherial 1." I avoided the human sounds since I was between making hold calls and checking the claims returned list in Gateway, but if I had a cat I'd play the bird sounds for them when they were napping.
Later when I looked at Jamendo I had this terrific discovery of a band called Tryad and their tune Struttin'. This was significant because I have been looking for music that I could put on my ipod when I am in a place like London at rush hour and just want to walk in a very crowded place with a soundtrack.
Perfect.
Now onto paging slips...
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
When I was eight year old I remember flying home to Albuquerque in a Cessna 150 with a family acquaintance. In the course of that 4 hour flight the guy piloting wanted to give me a flying lesson and it looked really easy to me so I said sure I'd like to take over the controls. Well, as you could predict the plane starting a belly-flopping sort of wobble that I just couldn't correct. I applied all my faculties to the problem, thinking harder and moving the controls differently, but nothing adjusted my sick slide over the Colorado/ New Mexico border. Yes -- there were only two wings and that upright tail thingy -- turn left to go left, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, but what's up with the foot business and how on earth (so to speak) is this guy going to put this thing back on the blasted runway. Whiskey Zulu Tango all you want, but my fate was suddenly in the hands of a guy that better not have a heart attack or I'm dead! After a few minutes "the guy" took back the controls knowing I was no child prodigy where flying was concerned and this assignment to get clipmarks to land this image on my blogspot was no different than trying to steer that Cessna 150. It was a sick slide of time and I missed lunch and went into the time I had allotted for Success Factors. But I couldn't give up and so I emailed the picture to myself, then copy and pasted it to my blog entry. Problem was I couldn't layout the text or even get the cursor where I wanted it so I just started typing and as you can see this is like a John Cage moment -- it all just ended up where it ended up.
As for the image, I forgot what I was going to say about it and just started thinking about the title of a previous post, "Six Different Ways to Build Anything." This was kinda like that. After lunch god-only-knows what Hyperventilate will look like and I'll finally go work on Success Factors.
As for the image, I forgot what I was going to say about it and just started thinking about the title of a previous post, "Six Different Ways to Build Anything." This was kinda like that. After lunch god-only-knows what Hyperventilate will look like and I'll finally go work on Success Factors.
Monday, September 21, 2009
What Are We Waiting For?
Assignment #7
Looking at Shelfari, Goodreads and Library Thing, I am struck by the human need to do something as private and internal as reading and then turn it into a social formula, where you have all this discourse about what you read. If Facebook is the model for how we are coming to interact as a species then these three seem to be paralleling that trajectory.
With that said, in terms of whether or not we adopt the Shelfari presentation and would that activate MCPLD's blog -- I think it is a good idea. The Boulder Libraries Good Reads had me initally questioning its relevance, especially with it advertising accupuncturists in the Boulder/Denver area and how can you not smile about "Boulder, CO?" Needles aside, these sites seem to integrate facebook, blogs, and reading recommendations in fun ways. I used to type up my old reading lists on a typewriter thinking that some day I was going to want to know all the books I had read in my lifetime. Here, you can do that in a way that is somehow more meaningful. My only request is that if you choose the Goodreads/Library website model, then please use a graphic designer for at least the home page so it looks inescapably compelling. Boulder's is weak. As a final thought, I would be far more interested in joining in if it were associated with my home area library. That way I can put faces to who's doing the reading -- it fosters community in my mind.
Looking at Shelfari, Goodreads and Library Thing, I am struck by the human need to do something as private and internal as reading and then turn it into a social formula, where you have all this discourse about what you read. If Facebook is the model for how we are coming to interact as a species then these three seem to be paralleling that trajectory.
With that said, in terms of whether or not we adopt the Shelfari presentation and would that activate MCPLD's blog -- I think it is a good idea. The Boulder Libraries Good Reads had me initally questioning its relevance, especially with it advertising accupuncturists in the Boulder/Denver area and how can you not smile about "Boulder, CO?" Needles aside, these sites seem to integrate facebook, blogs, and reading recommendations in fun ways. I used to type up my old reading lists on a typewriter thinking that some day I was going to want to know all the books I had read in my lifetime. Here, you can do that in a way that is somehow more meaningful. My only request is that if you choose the Goodreads/Library website model, then please use a graphic designer for at least the home page so it looks inescapably compelling. Boulder's is weak. As a final thought, I would be far more interested in joining in if it were associated with my home area library. That way I can put faces to who's doing the reading -- it fosters community in my mind.
Swimming in the Information Stream
Assignment #10
If only all learning were this satisfying and productive. I simply followed Nancy and Cari's directions in utilizing EBSCO (which I have always been a little intimidated by) expecting it to be sort of dense -- aren't we drifting into the academic world, one full of confusing references, citations and ibid's? But because I'm confident in both of their teaching skills I knew I would figure it out. The only problem is, this search mechanism is pretty status quo. You aren't going to find the things I'm interested in...Right?
Incorrectomundo!!
First I search for an article in Masterfile Premier -- Ski Mountaineering in the Tien Shan -- and bingo, articles actually show up about skiing and traveling in the Tien Shan! How can this be? I practically feel like a bonafide research librarian. Okay, I'll look for something beside your usual Pablo Neurda search in Biography Resource Center to see if this really works. I search Yvon Chouinard the founder of the Patagonia clothing company, and you won't believe it, not only do I get the general Bio on Chouinard's life, I find out his father hated dentists and preferred pulling his own teeth. Well as you can imagine I am practically swooning at the informational search skills Nancy and Cari have handed to me.
I'm going to start keeping a little notebook of the bon mots I've learned. Thanks.
If only all learning were this satisfying and productive. I simply followed Nancy and Cari's directions in utilizing EBSCO (which I have always been a little intimidated by) expecting it to be sort of dense -- aren't we drifting into the academic world, one full of confusing references, citations and ibid's? But because I'm confident in both of their teaching skills I knew I would figure it out. The only problem is, this search mechanism is pretty status quo. You aren't going to find the things I'm interested in...Right?
Incorrectomundo!!
First I search for an article in Masterfile Premier -- Ski Mountaineering in the Tien Shan -- and bingo, articles actually show up about skiing and traveling in the Tien Shan! How can this be? I practically feel like a bonafide research librarian. Okay, I'll look for something beside your usual Pablo Neurda search in Biography Resource Center to see if this really works. I search Yvon Chouinard the founder of the Patagonia clothing company, and you won't believe it, not only do I get the general Bio on Chouinard's life, I find out his father hated dentists and preferred pulling his own teeth. Well as you can imagine I am practically swooning at the informational search skills Nancy and Cari have handed to me.
I'm going to start keeping a little notebook of the bon mots I've learned. Thanks.
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