Summer Madness! and Spam-Art via the enBW Recycler

Hello again!

Google has been a bit prolific in recent weeks with its artwork/doodles commemorating various anniversaries,http://www.google.com/logos/index.html but I particularly liked their 21st June First Day of Summer (below) Madness artwork and the 22nd July interactive artwork celebrating Alexander Calder’s 113th birthday. The Google Doodles collection goes right back to 1998. 

Business Librarians (BUSLIB) has a new group on Facebook buslib@groups.facebook.com which you can join and participate with research queries, discussions, and more. Here’s the page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/buslib/?ap=1  While I’m on the subject of social networking, I found another group on LinkedIn called Interns over 40. This is a goldmine for the skilled worker seeking employment, who is on the mature side, and finding it difficult to move into that next position. http://internsover40.blogspot.com/2009/09/100-tips-tools-for-job-hunters-over-45.html  and with over 500,000 hits in 2010, it is a popular blog, with a huge amount of sound advice. The link I have provided is for a blog called 100 tips and tools for hunters over 45.

Since the weather has now taken a dip in temperature, I found some time to mess around with the Spam recycling software that I wrote about in my last blog, and so here are the results of my first few attempts. As spam has been somewhat prolific for me recently, I’ve stopped deleting it from my junk folder until I can analyse  what is the best of the dross to convert into art  

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and I’m sure you can do a lot better. Come on – show me what you’ve created!

Rebekah Brooks and the phone-hacking scandal that has wreaked havoc on Murdoch’s empire. Over the years, I have known a number of business people who are “Teflon Coated”. She’s one of these people, and pleads ignorance to ensure that nothing sticks. Private Eye’s latest issue is having a field day with this scandal; they have called themselves Private Eye incorporating News of the World and the headline is “GOTCHA! Murdoch goes down with all hacks”. About 80% of this edition is Murdoch-related reportage, and given that the bigger breaking news happened just 24 hours before the next print run, I can only surmise that Private Eye’s hacks have been compiling their data for a while, in readiness for this scandal to break.

Finally, I wouldn’t normally comment on something like this – but – Amy Winehouse – you silly girl. What an incredible waste of a great talent.

I’ll be back.

Internet Librarian International 2010 and other snippets

Hello! I always aim to please my readers, and so at this time of year it’s conference time, so we kick off with a two-day conference I attended at Internet Librarian International 2010 at the Hammersmith Novotel. I will provide you with some extra information about the conference, but as  firm believer of NOT re-inventing the wheel, just adding a few more spokes, I’ll point you to a series of three blogs I wrote for SLA-Europe, along with blogs written by my other SLA colleagues who attended the conference. We are all here: http://www.sla-europe.org/blog/. The conference was a really good one, and if you read the SLA-Europe blogs, you will see how much everyone got from the conference. Humour was in abundance as well as a learning curve within the presentations.  So – go and digest the blogs on the SLA-Europe web site and then return here for updates pertinent to the services/products/web “stuff” a la the speakers, including Phil Bradley, the vendors, publishers and much more. The social networking environment appears to be taking a new turn in the business world………..therefore, I’ll be back shortly.

 

 

Virtual Worlds and some updated good stuff

Hello!

A quick question for you. Are you using virtual worlds for professional purposes? I know we all use them for gaming, but I was wondering how many people use them as part of their learning experience or for other business-type uses. The reason I’m asking is that I think take-up of this tech for business use is low. I was in Second Life a couple of weeks ago and I don’t know where all my info pro colleagues were, but they weren’t in Second Life, and I enjoy using it. Maybe it was because of time zone differentials. If you are on there, look for Josephine Renfold. Yes – that’s me. Or are we all too busy twittering and on Facebook, etc., or do I just need to get out more……..  🙂 Let me know and I’ll tell you what others think. All responses are anonymous.

As a researcher, I’m always on the lookout for interesting legal cases, and the eBay v Newmark case was no exception.  On the Conclomerate web site there has been an extensive Poison Pill Forum, with some very good reportage from those who have provided their expertise on the issue of poison pills.

For those not in the know, a poison pill is something that a company that is the target of a takeover can use to put off the unwanted buyer, who may be a hostile buyer of the company (Barbarians at the Gate i.e. RJR Nabisco). However, what can also happen is that a White Knight (in shining armour!) comes to the rescue of the target company and offers a better (buy out) option that is good for everyone.

The discussions on the Poison Pill Forum include the relevancy of the above case being either a poison pill and takeover or if it has been “miscategorised”. Find the discussions here:

http://www.theconglomerate.org/2010/09/poison-pill-forum-steven-dvidoff.html

In my book I wrote about the Cuil (pronounced Cool) search engine.When I have tried to access it I get a “problem loading page” message. It doesn’t matter how I try and access it, there is no response.  It’s not unheard of for search engines to drop off the face of the earth, but it would be nice to be told. Whoops – hold on – found it here:

From Cuil to Frozen: The “Google Killer” Eats Its Own Medicine. PC Mag.com said: “Stick a fork in it. The oft-maligned Web search service started up by some ex-Googlers is currently offline, and reports indicate that Cuil might be gone for good. That’s not a moment too soon for PCMag’s John C. Dvorak, who labeled the search service as, “cheap, misleading PR,” “buggy,” “slow,” and ultimately, “pathetic” during its 2008 launch.” Now we know.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2369346,00.asp

I hope you have found this useful. I’ll be back again soon.