Is information in Wikipedia trustworthy?

After much press coverage about errors in Wikipedia, turns out it stands up well in the area of science topics compared to Encyclopedia Britannica according to "Science Journal: Wikipedia Pretty Accurate" in today's InternetWeek.

Nature compared articles in Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica and found "Based on 42 articles reviewed by experts, the average scientific entry in Wikipedia contained four errors or omissions, while Britannica had three. Of eight 'serious errors' the reviewers found--including misinterpretations of important concepts--four came from each source, the journal reported."

Latest stats on Wikipedia: "3.7 million articles in 200 languages, is the 37th most visited Web site on the Internet, according to the research service Alexa."

Yahoo's new shopping buddy system

Yahoo has launched shopping.yahoo.com where visitors can "...create their own list of products they love or hate and add their own reviews and pictures. Consumers can also comment on others' Pick Lists and even subscribe to them over a RSS feed." according to "Yahoo Makes Online Shopping More Social" in the November 15th issue of Internet Week.

The beta "Shoposphere" is also on the shopping.yahoo.com site. "...you can discover new, fun, and interesting products organized into "Pick Lists" by the Yahoo! Shopping community."

Shopping and blog technology combined. Happy holidays!

My browser doesn't understand me . . .

Someone called the other day to say she couldn't get the text box on the opening page of the catalog to remember her library card number. She thought this was a Library problem but it's actually a browser situation. In Internet Explorer (IE) click on Tools and then Internet Options.

Under the Content tab you'll find a section titled Personal Information. There you'll see a button called AutoComplete and an explanation that says, "AutoComplete stores previous entries and suggests matches for you."

Click on the AutoComplete button and there are three more choices for various situations: Web Addresses, Forms, and User Names and Passwords on Forms.

The first one, Web Addresses, refers to the address bar in Internet Explorer: do you want IE to remember addresses you've entered previously into the address bar? This a useful one to check especially if you find yourself typing a lot of addresses into the browser address bar.

The next option, Forms, is pretty much how it sounds: if you've entered your name into a form text box, do you want IE to remember the name and suggest it the next time you use a form? This includes Library Card numbers and, here again, can be useful.

The third choice is for User Names and Passwords on Forms. When you enter a user name into a text box do you want the password box to fill in automatically if you've previously saved it in IE? This is fine if you're the only user of a the computer. If, however, you share the computer with others, or if it's a computer used by the public, it's probably best not to select this option. IE says that the password does not display as recognizable characters -- just asterisks -- but if someone has figured out your user ID then it won't matter if they can read the password or not, they'll be in to your account regardless.

There's also a checkbox labeled, "Prompt me to save passwords." When this is checked, and you fill in a password box, you will be asked if you would like IE to remember the password. Say yes, and the next time you fill in a user ID box the corresponding password box fills in automatically. Best to leave this unchecked.

Below these options are two buttons. These will clear from memory what has been entered previously into user ID and password boxes. So if you've entered something you would like to remove, these are the buttons for you.

To clear the addresses from your address bar in IE, click on the General tab in the same window (Tools/Internet Options) and click on Clear History.

1 million iTune video downloads in less than three weeks

Talk about phenomenal growth!

According to Antone Gonsalves in today's Internet Week, "More than a million videos have been downloaded from its (Apple) iTunes Music Store, which debuted the service less than three weeks ago .... Apple launched video on its popular online store Oct. 12, the same day it announced the release of a video iPod. The company offers a total of 2,000 videos, including music videos, short films from the animation studio Pixar, run by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs; and episodes of ABC's hit TV shows 'Lost' and 'Desperate Housewives.'"

Envelope please?

What's your favorite technology blog? TechWeb is looking for your vote for your "best of the best" in tech blogs. Find more information including nominations and rules.

Yahoo! Podcasts Beta

"Yahoo Inc. introduced a test site yesterday devoted exclusively to downloadable audio programs known as podcasts, a move that some say puts the search engine on the forefront of a cutting edge technology and puts it ahead -- at least in this arena --of its biggest competitor, Google.

The site offers not only a search feature for podcast fans but also a lineup of podcasts that are new, noteworthy or just popular."

from Washington Post 10/11/05 Yahoo Seizes Podcast Initiative
Site Shines Light on Amateurs by Mike Musgrove.

Google Digital Project

Seems Google's controversial digitization project would likely succeed against copyright challenges by publishers and writers. Why? Because "The social value of Google's initiative to digitize library books, including those protected by copyright, will likely weigh heavily in the search engine's favor." Check out "Courts Unlikely To Stop Google Book Copying" by Christopher T. Heun in InternetWeek September 2.

E-mail or IM?

Yet something else that gives away your age!

According to the PEW Internet and American Life Project as reported in "Teenagers Say IM's Cool, Email's For Grownups" in the 7/28/05 issue of InternetWeek "...three quarters of teenagers use instant messaging,... They see email as much more formal, similar to how adults would see written letters: a quaint way of communicating with older relatives or for formal communications...."

What about you? E-mail or IM?

Phishing? Survey says ....

Most people don't recognize or understand the latest Internet technology terms. According to Gregg Keizer in "Podcasting, Phishing, RSS Still Gibberish To Most" in the 7/22/05 issue of InternetWeek, "The Pew Internet and American Life Project (PIP) found that most Internet users haven't a clue about some of the big buzzwords bandied about by the media and technophiles, including 'podcasting', and 'RSS'."

How's your terminology IQ?

Fairfax County Supervisors and Patriot Act

"The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is seeking to 'curtail unwarranted intrusions' by law enforcement officials into library records of county residents.", according to "Fairfax acts against invasions of privacy" in the July 12 Northern Virginia edition of the Washington Examiner.

The article goes on to say that while "...improving communications between federal agencies and promoting community preparedness...", "The board unanimously voted Monday to send a letter to Virginia's delegation to the U.S. Congress as a statement of a local government working to protect its constituents' civil and human rights."

See the entire article.

Thomson Gale working with Google and Yahoo

According to Michael Liedtke in a June 17 Detroit News Technology article,

"To make its library services more accessible, Thomson Gale is permitting the Internet's most popular search engines, including industry leaders Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., to include the material in their search indexes for the first time."

Why, you ask? "While the information has proven useful to library patrons aware of the online resources, it hasn't been helping the masses who flock to search engines as their first stop for research and education, said Thomson Gale President Gordon Macomber."

What do you think of this offering?

Wi-fi at Panera Bread

Customers asking you about the status of the Library's wi-fi connections? There's been a kick-off meeting with DIT.

Customers asking where they can make a wi-fi connection today? They might try Panera Bread. To find locations throughout the country, check out Wi-fi @ Panera Bread and scroll down the list to Virginia.

Google News

Most everyone goes for Google when looking for a search tool. With all that familiarity, why hasn't Google News taken off? Launched in September 2002, it is still in beta. According to Christopher Heun, "Today, it crawls more than 4,500 Web sites, using algorithms to index content and determine top stories based on how frequently they appear and how many pages are linked to them. Stories are divided into seven categories, then grouped into clusters, with results updated continuously, so that a link to the most recently posted story on a given topic appears with those that preceded it. All of this is done entirely without the input of a human editor."

Have you used Google News? Did it provide useful answers your question?

Whither radio?

The Internet continues to change the way people pursue their daily habits. "Online music services are drawing an increasing number of U.S. consumers from traditional radio stations, threatening to decrease the latter's advertising revenues,..." according to "Consumers Ignoring Radio for the Web" by Antone Gonsalves in the 6/7 issue of "Internetweek." For the full article, see http://www.internetweek.com/164301290.

How about you? What do you tune in to?

End of Dial-up Internet Access

Haven't gotten around to upgrading your Internet connection? According to today's InternetWeek Newsletter, "By the year 2010, 88 million U.S. households are expected to be Internet connected, with 78 percent using broadband, according to Jupiter Research. That's up from about half today."

I've been using cable modem access at home for years and been very happy with the reliability and speed, though I carry fond memories of the sounds of my old dial-up making a connection. Perhaps the cell phone companies will make a ringtone available for us oldsters?

Fingerprint scans

Napierville Public Library, which is a suburb of Chicago, is installing fingerprint scanners to "...verify the identity of computer users." See "Library Getting Fingerprint Scanners", which was sent in by Peggy Cope from RB.

What do you think?

Get to your desktop in a hurry

Ever find you have lots of windows open and the blue bar at the bottom of your screen has moved to a second layer of screens open? If you want to just clear the screen and get to your desktop in a hurry, here's how.

Look again at that bottom blue bar on your screen. Just beside the "Start" option, you'll see several icons. It looks a bit fuzzy on my screen, but one is a circle with an exclamation point. Click on that and you'll be at a clean desktop in moments.

Spyware

According to an article by David Quainton in the 5/10/05 SC Magazine Newsletter, "The spyware industry has amassed $2 billion from installing unwanted software on computers." He refers to the "State of Spyware Report" from Webroot which says "...pop-ups, hijacking home pages, redirecting searches, and using host file and DNS poisoning could make for over one-fifth of all online advertising revenue."

It goes on to say, "In the first quarter of 2005, 88 percent of computers had some form of spyware installed, the uses of which range from reporting sites visited for market research purposes, advertising and malicious collation of information."

Have you experienced spyware on your PC? Did you do anything about it? What do you think of such online advertising and unbeknownst market research?

Checking that e-mail a bit too much?

"Stoned On E-mail" warns the author of this article from the May 4th InternetWeek.

"Using e-mail and other messaging technologies excessively can lower your IQ as much as if you smoked some weed, according to recent research sponsored by Hewlett-Packard."

Check out the symptoms of "info-mania" and see if you have cause to worry!

Moblogs

What's the next generation for blogs? Mobile blogs or moblogs, of course!

Moblogs are posted directly from your cell phone to the Internet. They can include photos, video, and text. What a handy use for that new camera phone you received!

Could this be the tipping point of "too much information?"

Podcast

More folks are tuning into their MP3 players rather than conventional radio stations for their listening pleasure.

What is a podcast? "An audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio format and made available via an RSS syndication feed. Podcasts are created for many verbal discourses including home-brew discussions as well as major radio broadcasts." Source: TechWeb's TechEncyclopedia

Gaining ground? Absolutely! According to an article in InternetWeek.com's 5/2/05 issue, "Infinity Broadcasting, one of the largest radio station owners in the country, has announced plans to convert its San Francisco station KYCY AM to KYOURADIO starting May 16." It goes on to say the radio station, " . . . is ready to jump ship and become a podcast-only broadcaster by featuring programming uploaded to its website by its listeners."

Have you made this leap? Do you own an MP3? What do you think are some of the pros and cons?

Firefox Browser

The County's standard for Web browsers is Microsoft Internet Explorer. There are other browsers out there: Netscape, Opera, etc. What about the newest kid on the block--Firefox?

Some of the things Firefox does especially well are: blocks pop-ups, tabbed navigation, includes Google and other search tools, nifty find feature that highlights words on the Web page text as you type, and an RSS reader.

While Firefox can't be used on County PCs, has anyone tried it at home? What do you think of it?

TinyURL

Are you sick of trying to remember those enormous URLs like http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6493-2005Apr21.html? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field, this site will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.

Try TinyURL

NameVoyager

How does your name fare?

The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager is an interactive portrait of America's name choices. Start with a "sea" of nearly 5000 names. Type a letter, and you'll zoom in to focus on how that initial has been used over the past century. Each stripe is a timeline of one name, its width reflecting the name's changing popularity.

Try NameVoyager

Font Favorites

Times New Roman and Arial are among the "usual suspects" for software package defaults. Verdana is chosen for Web sites. I've seen Comic Sans used in signature files. There are hundreds of fonts. Which ones do you favor?

Wireless in Philadelphia

According to "Philadelphia going wireless" dated April 8, 2005 on CNN Money, the City of Philadelphia's wireless network "...is expected to be up by late summer 2006 and available to computer users paying up to $20 a month. Commercial Wi-Fi services run about $40 monthly." What do you think of this controversial move by a local government?

Auto Repair Reference Center

We continue to feature on the Internet Homepage individual databases subscribed to by the Library. Currently, Auto Repair Reference Center is taking center stage. Have you used it? Did it answer your question? Anyone have a car older than 1954?

Save your files!

Ctrl + s is the keyboard combination for saving a file.
Do it early, do it often.