Library Voice

Some of the creators of the Second Life Library 2.0 project have an article on the Serious Games Resources site. It’s a good overview of the project.

For those interested in adding a little action to their SL objects, a list of LSL functions can be found here and there is also a list of LSL tutorials.

And finally, if you are interested in educational opportunities in SL, take a look at the SL Education Wiki.

TrailLink.com “is a Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) initiative dedicated to providing detailed, up-to-date information on trail access, services and activities. TrailLink helps you take advantage of trails for pleasure, exercise and transportation anywhere around the country or in your own community. Through its extensive network of local trails, databases of current trail reviews and contacts and interactive, consumer-friendly trail information resources, TrailLink is your primary resource for trail activities and travel.” You can use TrailLink to search for trails by state, activity, or keyword, or use the compound search to search by surface type and length of trail. Trail users may also post reviews of the trails.

Spokejunkies : “The Spokejunkies are a group of fun-loving yet serious recreational [mountain bike] riders. Members range in age from 16 (the group-imposed minimum unless accompanied by a riding parent) to, well, let’s just say they’re old enough that they’d rather we not say. From blue collar shift workers to PhD-toting psychologists, the Spokejunkies appeal to all with one common factor, the quest for a great ride and a good time. They offer the beginner a forum to ride in a large group while learning valuable information from more experienced riders. The site includes reviews of Ohio mountain bike trails as well as a few trails from some other states.”

Ohio Mountain Bike Association: “The Ohio Mountain Bike Association is a coalition of mountain bike clubs and organizations throughout Ohio. We are dedicated to preserving the future of mountain biking in Ohio through the promotion of responsible riding, establishment and maintenance of mountain biking trails, and through developing partnerships with land managers and other trail user groups.”

BikeForums.net  is a forum for all things about cycling.  There are threads about family riding, road riding, mountain biking, and even commuting.

Getting Started with Mods

If you are new to the Mod DB or just mods in general, this page will provide all the information you need to get involved. Whethor you want to play, make, discuss or simply read about mods, we have everything to get you started.

It appears that DemoStudio, the open source screen capture application, no longer has a project page on SourceForge. I have the software installed on my machine, but I wanted to find it so a colleague could install it on her PC. After poking around on the web a bit, I was able to find CamStudio, which looks amazingly similar to the version of DemoStudio that I currently have installed on my machine. After opening DemoStudio and CamStudio, the “About” links of the software give a little more inormation. My version of DemoStudio is version 2.5, and parts of the software “is based on Rendersoft Camstudio.” The version of Camstudio linked above appears to be that version. I’ve no idea what happened to the more recent version of DemoStudio, but it appears that Camstudio will function well enough to meet my needs as a free (and very basic) substiute for Captivate.

BusinessWeek Online has a list of the 10 Most Tech-Savvy Rock Stars. “Meet the musicians who best harness technology, especially the Internet, to market themselves, their products, and their causes.”

That’s the word from the Wikipedia founder, according to a post on The Chronicle’s Wired Campus blog.  According to the post, “Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, says he wants to get the message out to college students that they shouldn’t use it for class projects or serious research.”

In an interview, Mr. Wales said that Wikipedia is ideal for many uses. If you are reading a novel that mentions the Battle of the Bulge, for instance, you could use Wikipedia to get a quick basic overview of the historical event to understand the context. But students writing a paper about the battle should hit the history books.

Needless to say, such statements tend to get folks like academics, librarians, and students a little fired up.  The comments of the post are an interesting read as well.

According to a post on Ars Technica, the current generation PlayStation 2 continues to outsell next-generation XBOX 360 in the U.S. The post states:

Since the release of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has averaged 246,000 console sales each month in the US, while the PS2 has seen an average of 473,000 units—a number bolstered by an estimated 1.5 million sales in December alone. Leaving out December, Sony’s average drops to 302,000 per month, still outpacing the Xbox 360 by a healthy margin.

Much of this is due to pricing, as the PS2 continues to be a good bargain for those just getting into gaming.

In short, Sony’s PS2 sales remain remarkably strong, and with recent price cuts trimming the system down to US$129, sales are expected to stay strong throughout the year. Sony has sold more than 100 million PS2s, and this year they can expect to add another three million from the US market alone. The PS2 market isn’t “winding down” in any meaningful sense.

In closing, I should note that we caution against putting too much weight on these sales estimates, especially in a comparative sense. The PS2 and the Xbox 360 are at opposite ends of their “console lifecycles,” and the two are priced quite far apart as well (e.g., $129 vs. $299, PS2, Xbox 360 Core respectively). We are impressed, however, by the PS2’s continually strong sales, even as many gamers turn their eyes towards the next-generation. These sales will help keep Sony strong and stable, even in the face of a disappointing PlayStation 3 launch, should fate take that turn.

We’re not suggesting that it will. To the contrary, Sony’s track record in this area is hard to bet against, even factoring in the questionable decision to push Blu-ray. As long as PS2 sales remain this strong, Sony can weather bumps in the road, should there be any.

At $130.00, the PS2 continues to be a good value. I’ve had one for quite some time, and I’ve enjoyed the huge amount of games available. As a very casual gamer and full-time dad (not much time at all), I enjoy the fact that you can find many of the games for less than $20.00. The pricepoint of the console and a huge library of games makes it ideal for someone who just wants to play a few games every now and then to unwind. If you are just getting into gaming and you’ve just bought a PS2, take a look at Metacritic’s rank of PS2 games as well as a similar list from GameStats. These lists might give you some ideas about the “best” games out there for the PS2.

The following post originated on my Business Blog.

The Ford Library at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business has a very cool tool called “One-Click Company Intelligence.” It’s an A to Z list of companies that are recruiting on the Duke campus. For each company there is a link to the company’s web site, a stock quote in Yahoo! Finance, a general company search in Proquest newspapers, a company profile search in Business Source Premier, and analyst reports in Investext Plus.

I can imagine that the page is fairly difficult to maintain, as URLs have a tendency to change quite a bit for subscription databases. I think a wiki could be a good tool to use for such a resource. Just imagine how large the One-Click Company Intelligence list could be if it were in a wiki format that anyone could contribute to. Any faculty, staff, or student researcher could add a company to the list, allowing future researchers quick and easy access to the information. Community editing would also allow for more up-to-date content, as the burden of creating and maintaining the content would be shared by more than one person. I can even see multiple libraries/organizations sharing the same Company Intelligence Wiki, particularly if they all have access to similar resources. This type of scenario would be ideal for business libraries in a consortia such as OhioLINK, as members of consortia may have many of the same resources. Librarians from around the state or region could work together on creating a resource that could be shared by all.

With MediaWiki, (the same software that runs the Wikipedia and the Biz Wiki) the list of companies could be organized by category as well as by an A to Z list. Companies could be categorized by industry, employee size, total revenues, location, etc., which could help business researchers in finding not only the company they are looking for, but information about similar companies as well. I know there would be some issues with off-campus access and proxy servers, as well as deciding on a common list of resources, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. Anyone else interested?

Michael Stephens was very kind in asking me some questions about my use of a wiki as a research guide.  The interview can be found on the ALA TechSource blog.  Thanks again to Michael for featuring the Biz Wiki.

I’ll admit that I’ve been a little quiet here for a while, but life has been a little busy. (And occasionally a little loud). This picture was taken during one of the quiet times that make the loud ones so worthwhile.

Cole Fulton Boeninger

Born May 22, 2006
8lb 15.4 oz, 22 inches

Both baby and mom are doing great, and we are all getting settled (sort of) into a new routine of being a typical family with two kids, a dog, a minivan, a mortgage, and no sleep.