Radio is acting up yet again, for what is still apparently no good reason. I have three big deadlines in the next two weeks, so I just don't have time right now to keep messing it with it to get it to post what I'm writing. Even though I have a lot I wanted to post about, it's not worth the loss of my time and the frustration when so much else is going on. I'll try to address this in a couple of weeks, and hopefully Radio will wake up and publish this notification at some point to let all of you know what is happening.

Plea: there's no other software out there that integrates a full-featured news aggregator (that I can access remotely and that lets me delete individual items) with a blogging tool, right? Please tell me such a beast exists and I just haven't found it yet.... Otherwise, please help me, LazyWeb Kenobi. You're my only hope!

C# Express RSS Screen Saver Starter Kit 

"One of my favorite features of C# Express is the built-in RSS Screen saver Starter Kit. If you’ve never built a screensaver before, or if you have never written code that uses RSS, then you’ll find the RSS Screen saver a great way to start programming.

In a nutshell, the RSS Screen saver is a screen saver that lets you select and validate an RSS feed, select a background directory for images to loop through, and the screensaver will loop through the items in the RSS feed." [Dan Fernandez's Blog, via del.icio.us/tag/rss]

I'm not enough of a programmer to run with this one, but this could be a very cool tool for libraries. Imagine being able to display your current news on your workstations via the screensaver in real-time without any manual intervention. Just update your "what's new" blog and it magically appears on all of your workstations. Major, major woot with a happy dance thrown in for good measure!

The Countdown Begins

"In the midst of all of that, I've been trying to think about ways to get some more blogging going, and at the same time introduce wikis and Bloglines and Furl into the mix. I'm following Alan's great work as, in a very structured way, he's getting his staff up to speed. Not all smooth sailing, but he's a man with a plan, and I'll be learning much from him this year, I'm sure....

But I'm feeling like this year I want more than more numbers. I want a class using a Wiki. I want my librarians teaching kids to use Furl. I want parents using Bloglines to aggregate their news. I want more collaborations. I want...all sorts of new and creative uses of this stuff." [Weblogg-ed News]

Over at Technobiblio, Chris has a great post about Improving Wi-Fi's Workability Quotient in Your Library. A must read.

"A few minutes ago, a police officer passed the bench where I was sitting outside the Athenaeum, enjoying the mild temperature and the wifi signal, and he said, 'Sir, you can’t use the Internet outside the library.'

I said, 'What?' (I’m pretty clever under pressure.)

The officer in question (whose conduct was entirely professional, firm, and calm behind those mirrored shades) solemnly assured me that in order to use the library’s open wireless signal, I had to be seated within the library....

'Maybe if you had permission it would be all right, but it’s a new law, sir; ‘theft of signal.’ It would be like if you stole someone’s cable TV connection....'

'...Is this a state law?' I asked.

'It’s a federal law, sir; a Secret Service agent came and explained it to us....'

At this point, it became clear that my uniformed interlocutor had to head in a different direction from me, so we shook hands and parted. And I walked back to the studio, dumbfounded that someone just rousted me for picking an open wireless signal in public — indeed (as it turns out) for using a laptop within a wireless signal’s range of the library. Weird." [AKMA’s Random Thoughts]

This truly is unbelievable, and it makes you wonder why on earth the Secret Service is going around lecturing local law enforcement about wireless "signal theft."

AKMA, please, please, please, go back to the library and talk to the librarians there. I wonder if they even know about this, but I am 100% sure they would love to help verify the law at every level (local, state, and federal). Perhaps they need to start handing out cards that declare their wireless signal open so that there can be no claim of theft.