Google, like Microsoft, a love/hate relationship

Jessamyn West has an interesting post on Google, with one response to date. As I thought about the news about Google over the past week, it struck me that my feelings about Google are like those about Microsoft: love and hate.

Google took a stand about releasing to the federal goverment information on searches done on Google. It is also the search engine of choice for sites like the American Library Association's or even my institution.

At the same time, Google is offering its search engine in China, but is censoring results in China. We started the ALA Midwinter meeting cheering Google for its stand for privacy and have ended by jeering them for their willingness to censor.

To the analogy, so the Dilbert analogy police don't take me away....some of us (I'm one) are concerned about the Microsoft near-monopoly on operating systems. (As part of my personal protest, I only use IE when absolutely necessary. I started browsing with Mosaic -- from my alma mater Illinois -- and now primarily use Netscape. Some, including my kids, are trying to convert me to Firefox.) Yet at the same time, the same near monopoly of programs like Word and Excel have made sharing documents incredibly easy. I guess I should have said that the other way around, because I described a "hate/love" relationship, but, oh, well.

Connecting at ALA Council

Here is a photo of the "laptop alley" in the ALA Council meeting room. Interestingly, there are probably as many laptops out in the rest of Council as there are in this section of the room. I guess some have better batteries, more confidence in them, or are not planning to do as much work.

PUBLIB @ San Antonio Midwinter

One of these days, I'll get set up on Flikr, but in the meantime, I was late getting to the restaurant for the PUBLIB get together. So here are three [rev. note: I wrote two originally and found that I actually had three. I also edited the post slightly.] small photos. The first is the group with whom I ate (Diane Casey, fellow EB member Nann Blaine Hilyard, Bob Boucher, and Jim Casey, and the larger table whom I cannot name completely. Suffice it to say that moderator Karen Schneider is there, too! [Unfortunately, I did not get to talk much to Karen at this Meeting because she had to head home for classes for her MFA.]

And I am slightly annoyed that I cannot get the photos to line up the way I want them to. Although after some fiddling this is better than it had been.

Sunny San Antonio

ALA has been meeting in San Antonio since late last week. As a Executive Board member, I have been in meetings almost continuously since Friday morning. When I got up on Friday to head to my first meeting, the sun was rising. Here is the view from my hotel room. A separate post will talk about the PUBLIB event on Friday evening.

Librarian Test

I took the test noted on one of the many lists I subscribe to. Whew! I'm glad I scored so well! I just wonder which question(s) I got wrong....

Head Librarian You scored 86% on knowledge of librarianship.

No pun intended. You know your stuff! Not only do you know the basics, but you know your library history, your who's who, your politics, and your technicalities. You are a true-blue librarian.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on knowledge

Link: The Are You a Librarian Test written by attention on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Conversation about Library 2.0

My conversation with Michael Stephens is up on ALA TechSource.

I am literally on my way out the door for the weekend, where I will be truly unplugged (not even cell service). Feel free to comment, and I'll respond on Monday or Tuesday.

New Year's Home Work

Yes, that is home work -- two words. The water heater is nice and photogenic, the attic stairs are not. However, with the help of my son, we removed the old pull-down attic stairs (with the borrowed Milwaukee Sawzall) and put the new one in. The springs on the old one were shot, and the door would not stay closed (creating a huge draft). The old ones were old wood. The new stairs are aluminum treads and stringer, and are rated to 350 pounds.

However...and there is always one, at 7 feet 6 inches, my ceiling heights are not standard. So I had to shorten the metal stairs. Thank goodness my friend Mark Carpenter owns a metal fabrication business, and he (actually his son, Mark Jr.) cut them down. I put them on during my lunch today, and they are perfect! Now to adjust the tension so my wife can pull the stairs down, and shorten the pull cord, and all that will be left is putting the trim back up, some touch up painting.

I guess furnace shopping is next.

Blogging Library 2.0

Got an email from Michael Stephens asking to have a "virtual conversation" about my thoughts. We did that yesterday. He is doing final tweaking, and I'm looking forward to hearing reactions.