Lori found some interesting chat mates:

"Meet Julia, the bot, at http://www.verbots.com. She is an interactive virtual personality and she can answer what the meaning of life is, why the sky is blue, and if she does not know the answer, she brings up the term in a google search which appears on the screen. I brought Julia up this evening and had both children (Katie, 9 and Patrick 6) at my shoulder wanting to ask her questions.  Verbot came out with a public library bot at the Computers in Libraries conference, but the link which was sent to me does not work. http://www.talkie.com is very interesting too. My kids really liked Barkie, the 'talkie' at www.pets911.com, a talking puppy."

Unfortunately, the kids were already asleep when I got home tonight or I would have gotten their reactions, too.

Toilet Paper Novels Hit German Stalls

"Germans who like to read on the toilet no longer need to take newspapers in with them, but can instead turn to novels and poems printed on toilet paper, a German publisher said Wednesday.

'We want our books to be used. That's our philosophy,' said Georges Hemmerstoffer, head of the Klo-Verlag which publishes the toilet paper literature. About half of all people liked to read on the toilet, he said....

Each text was printed several times on one roll, so that readers could actually use the paper and still leave behind some entertainment for the next toilet visitor." [HoustonChronicle.com, via Exploding Cigar, via jenett.radio]

Doc Searls says: "Alan Graham has a perfect idea:

"Let's send a book to each Representative — glued shut! They can't open it because we already read it. The iconic representation is simple...and most people would think that glueing a book shut after reading it would be absurd, but that is just what we need. The only way to define the absurd...is with more of the same. Let's send thousands of books, glued shut...along with a letter that clearly explains our point."

The only question remaining is which book?

Last month, John Shoch responded to a message about Video on Demand (VOD) on Dave Farber's Interesting People mailing list. I found the thread interesting because I do use NetFlix rather than my cable company's pay-per-view VOD service, but John's post made me realize how quickly I *would* use it if they offered anything even remotely resembling his vision.

"VOD will clearly have a market for immediate viewing of feature films. Delayed access via PVRs and Netflix is clearly better than no access at all -- but if the choice is available, I'm sure the vast majority of consumers would prefer immediate access.

But VOD will be much broader -- let your imagination roam:

-- 'I just watched the Harrison Ford version of Sabrina; gee, how does it compare to the old Humphrey Bogart version -- let's watch that one now!'
-- 'West Wing is starting again tonight, but I want to watch the final episode from last year first.'
-- 'I missed my favorite team in the quarter-final match in the Australian Regional Rugby tournament, let's watch that.'
-- 'How is German TV covering the flap with George Bush?'
-- 'My doctor showed me a video on how to do a breast exam, but I sure would like to see that again.....'
-- 'I can't get this darn Weber BBQ put together! Is there a video that shows how to do it??' "

Wonderful examples of the type of service I would pony up money for yesterday. The entertainment industry just doesn't seem to grasp how much I do want to interact with their content, just on my timetable and in a place of my choosing. (Aside: It's interesting that where the media companies are choosing to alienate their customers, Microsoft at least realizes the folly of this strategy.)

For example, Ryan left me a great suggestion to plug my forthcoming Archos Multimedia Jukebox into my ReplayTV, record a couple of shows onto it, and watch them on my upcoming flights. I'm definitely going to give this a try, and I'm pretty sure I can get his second suggestion to hook the Archos up to the multimedia unit in the minivan to work, too!

Tangential anecdote: while riding in my car last week (not the minivan with the video player), eight-year old Kailee explained to her five-year old friend how she thinks that someday, the back of the seat will have a television display in it and you'll be able to watch anything. When you want to go on the internet, a keyboard will fold down and you'll be able to work as you would on a regular computer. This is what she is expecting to happen, and she would rather it happen now.

"LILEKS ON BLOGGING:

'Shortly thereafter Internet access went out for the entire building.

I felt cut off from the world. It was as if my window had been bricked up. I needed to know what was going on out there.

Keep in mind that I had this feeling in a newspaper, where I had access to every wire service on the planet.

That’s actually rather telling. I’ve come to depend on the krill-filtering mechanisms of blogs and news sites, because they’re far more interesting than the wire feeds. I read a wire story, and that’s that. A wire story consists of one voice pitched low and calm and full of institutional gravitas, blissfully unaware of its own biases or the gaping lacunae in its knowledge. Whereas blogs have a different format:

Clever teaser headline that has little to do with the actual story, but sets the tone for this blog post.

Breezy ad hominem slur containing the link to the entire story.

Excerpt of said story, demonstrating its idiocy (or brilliance)

Blogauthor’s remarks, varying from dismissive sniffs to a Tolstoi-length rebuttal.

Seven comments from people piling on, disagreeing, adding a link, acting stupid, preaching to the choir, accusing choir of being Nazis, etc....'

I’m serious. I was sitting at a terminal at a major American daily, and I thought: I feel so uninformed!

I know what he means. And I think the point about how the link changes everything is key. I get the occasional complaint from old-line journalists about my 'bias' in the way I characterize something I link to. But that's the difference: unlike old media, I link to it. Readers don't have to take my word. They can make up their own minds." [InstaPundit]

To throw one more perspective into the mix, I feel this way sitting at a regional Library System that has access to a multitude of fee-based databases and uses a DS3 for internet access. Being without my news aggregator just multiplies this problem a hundred times over. I feel totally disconnected, and it's almost like I've forgotten how to manually surf all of my news sites. It feels too overwhelming, so I don't even bother. Ernie is just as addicted as I am, and we both needed a "patch" for aggregator withdrawl recently.

I'm getting to a point where I can [temporarily] live without internet access, but I start to get nervous without my aggregator.

I'm going to be out of town quite a bit between October 20 and November 15, because lots of nice folks have asked me to be a presenter at upcoming conferences. I'll be at Access 2002 October 20-23, Netspeed 2002 October 24-26, and Internet Librarian November 3-7. All of this will be followed by a week long vacation in California, so I will also get in some down time.

Today I got a call from Barbara Fullerton. You may remember her from 60 Gadgets in 60 Minutes fame (there's a sequel, too). I couldn't believe she was calling me, but she asked if I wanted to participate in her similarly themed presentation at this year's Internet Librarian conference. I'm not sure I let her finish talking before I exclaimed a hearty "yes!" So you can catch me there, too. I can't wait to see what she brings!

(Side note to the folks at Margi: my organization can't afford a Presenter-to-Go for our Sony Clies, even though it would be perfect for some of the work we do. If you have any inkling at all to send me one, I promise to show it to every person I can at conferences and even in the parking lot at work.)

In case you missed the big announcement, Lawmeme has put together a faboo one-day conference at Yale on November 22, titled Revenge of the Blog, that will discuss the intersections of law & blogging and journalism & blogging. I'll be part of a panel discussion for this one, although I will spend most of my time being in awe of the other presenters.

I'm really looking forward to all of these conferences, and especially to meeting some of my cyber friends along the way. If you'll be at any of these events, please stop by and say hello!

And just to show how much I love libraries and all of my faithful readers, I'll let you in on a little secret. I splurged this week and bought the new Archos Multimedia Jukebox. I ordered it online, so it's on the way. But I didn't buy it for my own personal pleasure. No, oh no, oh no. I bought it for all of you. I want to be able to truly show librarians what they need to start preparing for, and this gadget is one of the best illustrations. The things I do for you folks.... ;-)

P.S. Don't tell Ryan!