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My Flickr page, with 10 photos in both thumbnail and screen display size is at:

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Muddiest Point #3

There were a few things that we covered toward the end of class that I did not fully understand. One of these is Integrated Library Systems. What exactly does this title refer to? Is it basically just the library pages that are on most university websites, that connect you to databases, their own catalog, and other resources?

Right after this, the last slide of the presentation referred to Institutional and Digital Repositories. Again, I am not sure if I understand what this means. I looked at the websites listed on the slide, and from what I can gather these are systems meant to store information and make it accessible. But lots of systems do this. What makes it an Institutional and Digital Repository?

Reading Notes #4

Database (Wikipedia)

I had a class as an undergrad in Computer Science on databases, where I had to write code that would work with an Oracle database. It was complicated stuff, and I have forgotten a lot of how it works. This was a good refresher. It covers all of the major terminology and concepts necessary for a very general understanding, with links to more information on more specific aspects of databases. On the other hand, I do not think I would have understood a lot of it if I had never had experience with databases, so perhaps the article could be improved by adding information or altering the language so that the uninitiated can understand it.

Introduction to Metadata

This article was a bit hard to follow. It seemed to me that they sometimes meant literal "information about information" when using the term "metadata," but other times confused it with simple data about specific objects, not information. I imagine that this is my misunderstanding though, as the author seemed to know what she was talking about. This illustrates, to me at least, how complicated keeping track of information, especially on a large scale, can be. If I could not even follow the meaning of the article's subject, the stuff must be difficult to keep track of, at least for people like me.

An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model

And here is a specific example of how complicated this stuff can get. There is a lot of information here, using many standards and creating others, necessary to create something that can be used in a large variety of applications. A lot of effort has obviously gone into this project. Coming up with a system that many people in many places and many fields can use to keep track of information is not a simple task. And all that work does not include the vast effort that already has gone into creating things like XML. I hope that as I learn I will be able to understand more of the process that has gone on to create the DCDM and other ideas like it.

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Muddiest Point #2

We spoke at the end of the lecture about digitization. I have heard of problems with digitizing documents, particularly older ones. My understanding is that the scanner, if that is what is used, can damage the document. Is this from the light? Or is it just how the document must be handled in order to scan it? When is this a concern?

Reading Notes #3

Introduction to Linux

I have minimal experience with Linux. I have experimented with it, but never really used it for anything practical. I like it, but have never had the time and ambition to really switch myself over. This guide gives a nice overview, if biased towards Linux (as a guide for Linux will obviously be). I do think that the idea of open source is a good one, and I use several open source programs myself: GIMP, OpenOffice (I have been too cheap to keep up with the latest versions of M$ Office), Blender, and Firefox, to name just a few that you may have heard of / used. I think that Linux has great potential, and that this potential has done nothing but continued to rise since it was created, but it is not quite ready for everyone, if only because so many people are already used to other OS's.

Mac OS X

These articles together give a very complete overview of the workings of Mac OS X. I have no experience with Mac OS X, aside from using it a few times in computer labs or in the homes of friends who own a Mac. From what I have seen, though, I like this OS far better than Apple's old operating systems (which, again, I have minimal experience with). It is an entirely different experience, at least for a person unaccustomed to it – fairly intuitive, very sleek, maybe even a little fun to use. These two articles both, however, focus mostly on the technical aspects, and though that is important (to me at least – I was a Computer Science major), I would have liked to have read more about the experience itself – how it feels to use the OS. Still, the articles filled in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge about Mac OS X.

An Update on the Windows Roadmap

This is certainly the most biased of any of the writings that we read. Of course, the letter is from the Senior V.P. of Microsoft, and he is not exactly going to put down their operating system. What seems to show through his writing, though, is a problem that he cannot directly acknowledge: people are not switching to Windows Vista as quickly as Microsoft hoped they would. Bill Veghte seems to be trying to convince people that it really is alright to switch to Vista now. I believe Microsoft has been trying to convince people of this since Vista came out. Of course, advocates of Linux and Mac OS X, and any other operating system, tend to do this all the time. This is perhaps more noticeable, though, because Microsoft does not usually have to put as much effort into persuasion as they so right now. I am very curious about how things will turn out in the future – what operating system(s) will most people be using a decade from now? I am hoping that someone combines the best of all of them (and no matter how much you hate Windows-users/Apple-lovers/Linux-nerds, they ALL have their advantages) some day.