Archives
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Spam Blocker
MailWasher- You preview your email headers through mailwasher, and you can delete and/or bounce back the spam, so that the spammer (or undesirable lunatic) will get a message back indicating that they have emailed an invalid email address!
Computing News — laura
Copy Protected CDs
A big problem stemming from the music industry’s attempt to regulate music file sharing is the introduction of copy-protected cds into the market. The purpose of the copy-protection is to prevent digital copying of the files fromlegally purchased cds(not even backups). However, in those attempts they often keep people from even listening to the cds on computer or in car cd players and sometimes the copy-protection even causes damage. Fat Chuck’s - Corrupt CDs contains, among other information, a list of cds known to have copy-protection on them which can be helpful for diagnosis if one of your computers suddenly stops working for no reason.
Copyright — laura
PC Protection
All of the viruses and hacking going around can make you nervous. Especially if you have public computers where you can’t control what all the users are going to do. Below are free (and paid) services that can help you protect yourself a little more.
- Zone Labs: ZoneAlarm Pro download, trusted Internet security, small business security, home security- ZoneAlarm, at the bottom, is a free firewall program.
- Home of Gibson Research Corporation- Hosts free utilities for testing the security of Windows computers and advice on fixing leaks. Shields UP! looks to see how easily you can be hacked.
- Grisoft- free anti-virus software
- Panicware- Software to protect privacy on the net. PC only.
Computing News — laura
Spyware Information
Spyware is software downloaded to your computer, usually without your knowledge, that “watches” what you do on the Internet and then transmits the information back to its makers.
- SimplytheBest Spyware information- A great deal of information and resources about spyware.
- Counterexploitation [cexx.org]- A site devoted to fighting Spam and adware. Has step-by-step instructions for finding and deleting spyware from your computer.
- Spybot - Search & Destroy by PepiMK Software- Another adware detection software like Ad-Aware, also for free.
- Pop-up Stopper- Free fromPanicware Inc., blocks pop-up windows in Internet Explorer on PCs with an option to allow selected ones.
Computing News — laura
Digital copyright
Digital copyright is a big story right now but to the uninvolved the unfamiliar terms make it hard to understand. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has a great explanation on how the new copyright rules will hurt libraries and The Shifted Librarian has a very nice summary.
Copyright — laura
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Creating Web Pages
I’ve posted tutorials on my other site dealing with how to create websites using only a text editor. “XHTML and CSS for Newbies” can be found at theImaginaryWorld Tutorials section. More advice can be found through my Weblink Index.
Tutorials — laura
iTunes Music Store
Apple has made a deal with the five biggest music labels to allow iTunes users to download songs at $.99/each. This is a big deal as the first and so far best service for buying the most popular music digitally.
Apple unveils music store - article from C|Net.- iTunes Music Store-Response from a Mac user on the iTunes-Store interface. Be sure and read his comments for other users opinions.
- Musique- a balanced review of the service.
One of the commentors on the second site mentioned another service, EMusic.com, which has less popular artists as well as mostly unknowns. It also has terms of use that allow a subscriber to download as many un”protected” MP3s as they want for a monthly fee, which encourages exploring. So far EMusic looks like a better deal.
Computing News — laura
A Free Alternative to MS Office
OpenOffice.org is a suite of applications built to work with MS Office files but their own formats are XML-based. Open-source means that anyone with the ability can add to the program or make adjustments to fit their needs. It is free to download and use.
Open-Source Software — laura
Monday, April 28, 2003
War on internet piracy suffers setback
War on internet piracy suffers setback is an article in the Financial Times covering a federal court’s ruling that file-sharing services could not be held accountable for what their users did with them.
Copyright — laura
Effective Google Searching
Why bother with a tutorial for Google? You just type in you topic and go, right?
Tutorials — laura
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is “A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and University of Maine law school clinics.” The site’s purpose is to educate non-legal professionals on their rights under the First Amendment and intellectual property laws as they apply to the Internet. The site covers a number of topics including the DMCA, piracy, and Fan Fiction.
Copyright — laura
Saturday, April 26, 2003
Library Organizations
- The Medical Library Association
- SLA - Special Libraries Association
- American Library Association
- Libraries for the Future
Library Links — laura
Internet References for Librarians
- LibrarySpot -A directory of reference sites in many areas targeted at librarians.
- ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science
- UsefulBookmarks- A librarian’s directory of links.
Library Links — laura
Library Fun
- The Laughing Librarian-Library humor
- The Lipstick Librarian!- Must be read to understand.
- Overdue Media, home of Unshelved- A comic for librarians set in a public library.
- Why You Should Fall to Your Knees and Worship a Librarian. Just read it. And buy th t-shirt.
- Biblia’s Warrior Librarian Weekly: Original Library Humor by Biblia, the Warrior Librarian
Library Links — laura
Libraries and Technology
- LISHost.com- “LISHost, non-profit, low cost Web hosting and design for the entire library world.” Librarians sharing the work and cost of maintaining a server to keep it lower for all.
- oss4lib — Open Source Systems for Libraries A community to encourage the use of open-source software by libraries. Open source means that it can be legally modified to fit the users needs. There is more of a learning curve involved with using open source but it is often far less expensive than the proprietary alternatives.
- Library Lookup A bookmarklet that sits in your toolbar and looks up books in your library by ISBN number from Amazon.com and others.
- maccaws.org- “MACCAWS’ mission is to provide Web authors with the resources necessary to promote Web standards as a commercially desirable choice for clients.” Web standards can make your website easier to edit and faster to download. They also make complying with the government’s accessibility rules much easier.
Library Links — laura
Library News Sites
- LISFeeds.com is a website that displays the RSS feeds of several library weblogs. One stop shopping for industry news.
- LISNews is a newspaper type website targeted to information workers. Comments are allowed to encourage discussion.
- Weblogs are good places to find the latest and the most concentrated stories about their subject. Library Weblogs is site that lists those by and for librarians.
- Library Planet is a good example of a library weblog.
- The Shifted Librarian is another one, more focused on technology as it can be used by libraries.
Library Links — laura
Friday, April 25, 2003
Baen Free Library
Bean Books publishes a lot of science fiction and fantasy works. Since 2000, they’ve had the Baen Free Library up where they post electronic versions of some of their books for free in text, html, and pda formats. It’s not unknowns, either. They have stuff by:
- Lois McMaster Bujold
- Mercedes Lackey
- Holly Lisle
- and David Weber
The introduction by Eric Flint and his newsletter “Prime Palaver” are full of wonderfully practical views on the online piracy debate, for books and music, complete with responses from users and the actual experiences of content producers who have released material for downloading.
Copyright — laura
Welcome
There isn’t much here yet because the site is still under construction but I have a lot of ideas I hope to get up quickly once the design is finalized.
So far, I’m planning on sections for:
- copyright issues
- useful web resources
- and a Google searching tutorial
I expect much more to be added in time. If you have any ideas or things you’d like to see, email me.
Site — laura
