Barreraicus Maximus

Just in case you were in expectation of the next bad Windows product update, IE 8 RC1 is out.  They tout being faster and easier as they do battle with Firefox.  So far, I’ve found one problem with Ex-Libris’ WebVoyage OPAC.  If you perform a search, choose a record and attempt to display the print or citation view, it attempts to download the .cgi script.  Possibly an Ex-Libris issue, but I want to blame IE8, since this doesn’t happen anywhere else.

I haven’t written a darn thing here in almost a year.  So…I figured it is about time.  Funny thing is I managed to keep the software up to date.

I’m presently reading a book Productive Programmer by Neal Ford (Safari Tech).  I’ve barely gone through one chapter, since I found it at Princeton Public Library the day my LIS classes were to start.  Anyway, it has a lot of tips for doing things faster, so you have more time and are more efficient while programming (or just wastin’ time on the ‘puter).    I installed Enzo Launcher (Windows) which can launch apps and open folders for you simply by holding CAPS LOCK and typing a command (either built in or learned).  Seems fairly decent so far, but I don’t think as robust as QuickSilver is for the Mac.

The wonders of mergers, how could Adobe screw up acquiring Macromedia’s catalog of quality software. Well, by making it like Adobe Reader. I love Photoshop, great application. I’ve never had a problem with Acrobat, Illustrator etc (in my limited use of them). But Adobe Reader on the other hand is annoyingly slow loading, and often has crashed, especially when in use from a browser. I’ve switched to Foxit Reader, on my Vista, XP, Mac Laptop and Windows Mobile Phone.

Additionally, one of the hot trends among software developers is auto updates. I HATE THEM. They have become an unnecessary evil. Problem with these packages is they prompt you to download and install upon launching the software. So picture yourself on a deadline, and you pop open Photoshop and it prompts you if you’d like to install an update for Illustrator. Sure you tell the software, remind me later, and it will remind you. Isn’t that sweet. Firefox does a decent job of updates, although the quick string of 2.0.7 to 2.0.8 to 2.0.9 was a bit annoying, but at least it is fast. CS3 often needs to download large packages, as does Apple’s QuickTime/ITunes. I just want to listen to some music, not download a 70 mb updater. Another trend is services. Apple has Bonjour, which they now have partnered with Adobe to use as a communication tool with Version Cue. Great….if I used Version Cue. So hence I have a running service, which apparently I cannot stop. Oh, Apple, I do love you…but I don’t have an iPod, iPhone, iTouch, iAnything, but you insist on my having the iPod service. Thanks. Services have been a notorious cause of slow running computers, and because many of these now come from “established” companies, tools like Windows Defender, Adaware etc, don’t really care about them.

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Andrew Nagy and the folks at Villanova University recently released Vufind a library resource portal. The software is opensource and created with PHP using MySQL and the Solr search engine. Ever since Code4Lib 2007, I’ve been interested in Solr and Villanova’s project. Nagy presented on their interface at the conference, and expects for it to be a key piece of their site sometime in the near future.

So yesterday morning, I downloaded the package to begin an install. I decided to use my experimental linux box in my office. This was formally my desktop machine, so it is a Dell GX280, with 2gig RAM and probably a 2.x GHz pentium 4. I had it already configured with Ubuntu Linux and I primarily use the Synaptic Package Manager to install software. I have it configured with PHP, MySQL, Apache, Tomcat and a Nutch install. It took me about 2 hours to get the basic setup done. Mostly, I had to adjust some of my settings from my previous work. The actual software probably took me no more than half that time. Very little additional server configuration was needed other than the server being a LAMP setup. A few Pear modules and the installation of YAZ was all that I needed to install.

In roughly 2 hours, I had a more than capable Web 2.0 style OPAC installed. I received a package of 86k records from one of our ILS admins and imported those into the record. Even on this small box, the results return fairly quickly. I’m not sure how interested Princeton is in actually implementing a system such as this, but I for one will be putting Vufind to the test. I have to now go find a better server so I can request more records! Thanks Andrew!

Web 2.0 as Paris Hilton would say is hot. But is it really new, or is it a repackaged, better marketed version of the web. While technology has certainly improved the web functionality and more importantly access speed, most of what is considered new really isn’t. Online video probably is the biggest improved web feature. With so many users now having broadband and an vast improvement in video compression, quality video is rampant. But what about all those “social networks”. Here is a list of the old and new, and you tell me if it really isn’t mostly hype.

• Geocities Homepages = MySpace – Both promote users creating their own slice of the internet with their interests and annoying background music.
• Classmates = Facebook – Classmates is still around, and if it hadn’t been for them pushing for monthly fees, they may have beaten Facebook to the punch.
• Forums = Blogs – seemingly a reach but not really. Blogs basically allow someone to have a forum in which no one else is able to start a topic, they are only able to comment on them. So I have an opinion or an answer and I post it to my blog. You can read it, and comment; however, if I don’t like your comment I nuke it! Forums basically did this 10 years ago, but of course someone could just hop on and trash your stupid, silly opinions and only if you were a narc err moderator could you delete it!
• Ofoto = Flickr – If I had a good memory I could probably remember 10 other sites which allowed you to upload and share your photos.
• DHTML = Ajax – The xmlHTTPRequest object in javascript did for DHTML what steroids did for Sammy Sosa. Suddenly it became relevant.

Am I anti Web/Library 2.0? Not really. I just hate the 2.0 part of it, as if it is actually just like Coke Zero. Look at the ingredients and compare Diet Coke and Coke Zero. They are essentially the same. Coke changed the formula slightly, repackaged it and gave it a ssssssssssslick name.

What the web is experiencing is the same thing car companies routinely do. They introduce a new car model. The marketing gurus sell the hell out of it. The engineers go back to the drawing board and start working on improvements. Three years later they have a new version of the old car, having changed is styling a bit, given it some fancy new options, added a new advertisement campaign and presto you can own the all new 2007 Yugo.

So when you are considering jumping into the Web 2.0 fray, and adding your library to Facebook, MySpace etc, just remember that it is a fad, and while it may last for a couple of years, there will be something else. Better practice is probably to invest heavily in R&D. Build something new for today, which fits all the latest trends, and immediately go right back to the lab and start looking at the future trends.