The Harper Conservatives are quietly cutting funding for any organization within 25 km of a public library that offers public Internet access via the long-standing Community Access Program. This could include community centres, senior centres, hospitals...and even including other public libraries in smaller communities if they're within 25 km of a library that has CAP computers in a larger community.
This is terrible decision for so many reasons - especially given the small cost of providing Internet at these sites (a few grand per year). As you know, I worked for a rural system that had maybe half a dozen libraries within 25 km of Regina - not to mention how the majority of our smallest branches were within 25 km of a larger centre - villages near towns and whatnot.
If this change comes to pass, everyone in those smaller communities could end up losing the free public access the library provides to the community. Not everyone owns a computer and not everyone gets into Regina or the next largest community on a regular basis. And with more and more of our information mainly (or only) available online, there is a real danger of widening the already gaping chasm that is the digital divide between larger and smaller centres across Canada.
(via Reddit of all places!)
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Monday, March 15
Federal Government Cuts Funding For Public Internet Access
by
Jason
on Mon 15 Mar 2010 08:09 PM CST
Friday, March 12
Friday Fun Link - Visualiy Representing the Top 100 Sites on the Internet (March 12, 2010)
by
Jason
on Fri 12 Mar 2010 11:31 PM CST
Wednesday, February 24
FTRW 2010 - ChatRoulette
by
Jason
on Wed 24 Feb 2010 08:38 PM CST
It's not book related but nothing says Freedom of Expression like the newest buzz site of the Internet, ChatRoulette. The site is exactly what it says - you hit the site and you see a chat window for yourself and one for a random person somewhere in the world. As soon as you get bored (which is usually fairly quickly - basically as soon as you see the other person's face...or they see yours), you click a button and see someone else. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
(I did it just now and got hung up on about five times in a row, had a brief chat with two guys who were watching the Canada-Russia game and saw one set of fingers making hand puppets. Contrary to my previous experience with web cams way back in the late 1990's - and frankly what I was expecting here - every second person wasn't trying to show me their penis which was nice. Perhaps if I was female?) So it's not all people freely exposing expressing themselves as you might expect - there's humour, love and even puppets! Oh, and you might see the occasional vagina as well. (via MetaFilter) [2010-03-05: The Daily Show adds their hilarious take on ChatRoulette.] [2010-03-15 - Piano Improv ChatRoulette is pretty funny.] Friday, February 19
Friday Fun Link - Code Organ (February 19, 2010)
by
Jason
on Fri 19 Feb 2010 09:17 PM CST
A web site that allows you to "play" the HTML of any web site. This isn't as straight-forward as it sounds...
The CodeOrgan analyses the "body" content of any web page and translates that content into music. The CodeOrgan uses a complex algorithm to define the key, synth style and drum pattern most appropriate to the page content. Firstly, the CodeOrgan scans the page content and removes all characters not found in the musical scale (A to G), and then analyses the remaining characters to find the most commonly used "note". If this is an even number the page is translated into the major pentatonic scale of that particular note, it becomes minor if there is an uneven number. Secondly, the CodeOrgan defines which synthesizer to use. This is based upon the total number characters used on the webpage - there are currently 10 synthesizer effects and the one chosen is picked based upon the percentage of content. Lastly, the CodeOrgan selects a drum loop based upon the ratio of characters on the page versus the number of characters that are actually musical notes - there are currently 10 different drum loops to pick from. Here's my blog. Here's the RPL web site. Here's Google (which sounds like something you might hear if Lawrence Welk provided the soundtrack for your dad's old 8mm home movies.) [Edit: And I had to see if this sounded like bow-chikka-bow-bow (pretty close!)] (via MetaFilter) Thursday, February 18
Google Donates Two Million Dollars To Wikipedia, No Strings Attached
by
Jason
on Thu 18 Feb 2010 06:18 PM CST
With Google announcing a two million dollar donation to Wikipedia, I wonder, "did I predict the future nearly four years ago?"
"I don't know if any two technology companies have been better suited for each other. There's already been rumours of a strategic partnership and, like the recent YouTube purchase, I think a formal partnership of this type would be an ideal situation. Combine the technological expertise and deep pockets of Google with the open-access policies and "third wave of the Net" cultural impact of Wikipedia and many good things are guaranteed to happen." ...although I have no idea what I meant with the reference to YouTube? I think I was saying that Google should put money into Wikipedia but obviously, I didn't think Google would be able to buy Wikipedia outright...or did I? Friday, January 29
Friday Fun Link - "Library" at WikiHow (January 30, 2010)
by
Jason
on Fri 29 Jan 2010 11:57 PM CST
WikiHow is a site where anyone can add instructional guides on pretty much any topic you can think of. There's lots of good information (in between the tons of Google ads) from How to Teach Yourself Piano to How To Treat A Snakebite - although the usual caveat about the guides being user-submitted and editable by anyone applies.
A search for "library" reveals a bunch of interesting guides - from How To Check Out A Library Book to How To Write A Note Commending Library Staff. Wednesday, January 27
Apple iPad Officially Announced
by
Jason
on Wed 27 Jan 2010 05:43 PM CST
Apple's newest product wasn't a huge secret - the majority of observers predicted some form of tablet computer. So the speculation mainly centered around what form their tablet computer would take: like an iTouch but "better"? Some sort of iPhone/netbook hybrid? Something revolutionary with technologies we've never seen before? (Touch on both sides of the device? Lasers to zap your enemies?)
From the announcement today (and ignoring the patented Steve Jobs hyperbole), it sounds like an iTouch but bigger (with a healthy swirl of Kindlge thrown in too.) Here's a sample of the commentary: Apple Unveils iPad Tablet (NYT) Liveblogging Steve Jobs' Presentation (NYT) Apple iPad: What We Still Don't Know (PCWorld) The Young Curmudgeon's Club That is MetaFilter Weighs In (MetaFilter) But after proclaiming the iPhone the greatest invention in the history of inventions in my year-end wrap-up last year, I'm pretty excited to get my hands on the iPad. Drool... Wednesday, January 13
Shadowrun Has Arrived?
by
Jason
on Wed 13 Jan 2010 08:29 PM CST
I never got into role playing games like many of my friends from elementary school did. (In fact, the first time I was invited to play D&D at a friend's house in grade five or six, I got into a fistfight and bloodied another guy's nose! After that, rolling a D20 to determine if you hit someone is a bit of an anti-climax.
 )One game that held my friends in particular thrall was called Shadowrun (which I think they still play to this day.) This game is set a few decades in the future and contains themes of cyber-warfare, techo-terrorism and corporate vs. government power. This game is fictional. But recent news stories about the cyber-battles between the world's largest country and one of the world's largest corporations make you wonder how long until that's no longer the case? Wednesday, December 30
FlickrSlidr
by
Jason
on Wed 30 Dec 2009 11:24 AM CST
FlickrSlidr is a tool to embed Flickr slideshows on your blog or web site...
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR. Tuesday, December 29
Ten Years of Tech Trends
by
Jason
on Tue 29 Dec 2009 11:56 PM CST
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