new library catalog

What are other people's thoughts on the new UT library catalog online search format?

My initial reaction is that it has too many fancy features which make it unnecessarily clunky, and I don't really need to see pictures of book covers, as I don't need my library catalog to feel like Amazon.

Is it weird...

that I'm so into this concept? It's a book about how long it would take the earth to undo humanity's work, if humanity suddenly disappeared...

Grrrrr

So, just another reminder on top of Danny's reminder - save your work. Save it on webpages and save it frequently. My laptop just crashed for the second time in two months for no apparent reason. A pox on HP. I'm breaking down and getting an apple. Please tell me I'll have better luck.

Copyright your own number

I encourage all of you, in the wake of the AACS encryption scandal, to try to protect your very own 128-bit number.

Here's the background in a nutshell according to boingboing:

"Last week, the AACS consortium made history by issuing legal threats against the 1.8 million web-pages (and counting) that mentioned its secret code for preventing HD-DVD discs from being copied.

In effect, AACS-LA (the AACS Licensing Authority) claimed that it owned a randomly chosen 128-bit number, and that anyone who possessed or transmitted that number was breaking the law. Moreover, it claimed to own millions more random numbers -- claimed that the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which criminalises telling people how to break anti-copying software, gave it exclusive dominion over its many keys"

Laptops in high school

NYT writes today that a lot of high schools who started techoptimistically giving a laptop to each of their students have decided to take them back, because the one-to-one student-laptop ratio doesn't seem to be doing any good for education. The lede of the article:

"The students at Liverpool High have used their school-issued laptops to exchange answers on tests, download pornography and hack into local businesses. When the school tightened its network security, a 10th grader not only found a way around it but also posted step-by-step instructions on the Web for others to follow (which they did). Scores of the leased laptops break down each month, and every other morning, when the entire school has study hall, the network inevitably freezes because of the sheer number of students roaming the Internet instead of getting help from teachers."

Interesting, vis a vis all of the arguments for and against letting undergrads have laptops in lecture so that they can google "Duke Lacrosse T-shirts" instead of taking notes. I, for one, still think somebody should invent the lecture hall wireless-blocker device and make a mint.